Czech police to help secure Schengen border in Hungary from October

Prague, Sept 27 (CTK) - Fifty Czech police officers will help protect the Schengen Area external border along the Hungarian-Serbian borders as of October 15, Deputy PM and Interior Minister Jan Hamáček has told reporters.

The police contingent will operate there for two months.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš discussed sending aid in the form of soldiers or police officers during his visit to Hungary last week when he expressed support for the anti-immigration policies of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Babiš pledged to help Hungary in its fight against mass migration, promising that a plan would be put in place to provide support in the form of soldiers and border guards to help police the Hungarian border.

Of his own country's immigration policies Babiš has said “The Czech Republic will not accept migrants, but it will help them in their own countries.”

The cost of the mission is estimated at CZK 50 million. The cabinet of the PM's ANO party and the Social Democrats released the funds today and the sum will be transferred to the Interior Ministry's budget.

The Czech Republic will now have established a police presence in North Macedonia, Slovenia, and Hungary.

Last week, Hamáček offered an extension of the Czech mission to his Slovenian counterpart Ales Hojs. A dozen Czech police officers deployed to the Slovenian border with Croatia in the summer.

"The Czech Republic clearly shows that though we do not have an external border with the Schengen Area, we express solidarity and support those with external borders," Hamáček said.

Over the past four years, the Czech Republic has spent CZK 1.1 billion on Schengen external border protection and projects connected with it, and another CZK 400 million has gone to the protection of the Czech border and police equipment, the Deputy PM added.

Hungary built a border fence on its border with Serbia and Croatia in 2015 during the height of the European migrant crisis when hundreds of thousands of Afghan, Iraqi, Sudanese but mostly Syrian refugees fled their respective war zones.