Austria will introduce stationary controls at the Czech border on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry spokesperson told APA on Thursday. This is another step by Austria to combat the influx of irregular migrants.
Previously, Germany announced border controls at the border with the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland on Monday (16 October) to combat the flow of irregular migrants.
The new controls at the Czech border will be applied for at least ten days and may then be renewed.
Due to the sharp increase in the number of arrivals in recent years, Austria has made combating irregular migration one of its top priorities.
Compared to 2021, the number of asylum seekers in Austria increased by 195 percent in 2022, with more than 56,000 people applying for asylum between January and August. While Syrians and Afghans have long been at the top of the list of applicants, Indians were the largest group to apply for asylum in 2022.
However, in 2023 the trend appears to have reversed somewhat. In the first eight months of 2023, asylum applications fell by around 40 percent.
Austria is already carrying out border checks on several of its neighboring countries.
Although controls have been in place for years at the borders of Hungary and Slovenia, stationary controls were only reintroduced at the border with Slovenia at the beginning of October.
Since the migration crisis in 2015, Austria has taken a decisive stance against migration. It is strongly committed to strengthening controls at the EU’s external borders and increasing the return rate of irregular migrants.