Czechia, UK sign joint declaration to strengthen fight against terrorism and trafficking

Czechia and the UK signed a joint declaration Monday that pledges to strengthen efforts to fight terrorism, crime, and illegal immigration. 

Interior Minister of Czechia Vít Rakušan and his British counterpart Suella Braverman vowed to intensify the exchange of information between the two countries. 

Rakušan met with Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat as well as representatives of the National Crime Agency to discuss ways Czechia and the UK can defeat cross-border criminal activity. 

The UK ambassador to Czechia Matt Field accompanied Rakušan on the trip.

The signed declaration also states that both countries should boost their cooperation in the search for suspected missing people and in defeating human trafficking. Both countries can also work together to crack down on financial crime, according to the ministers. 

This meeting proves timely, given that last week, a court in Liberec gave two Czech men prison sentences of over ten years for smuggling mass amounts of cannabis into the UK. The pair also received money hidden in shipments that were headed from the UK to Czechia.

In a separate legal case, Czech police recently indicted four people for alleged human trafficking from Czechia to the UK over three years, according to a press release from the police this Monday. This involved confiscating the documents and phones of the victims and forcing them to work in British fast-food chains.

Amid rising crime in Czechia, the new declaration is evidence of the country’s efforts to bolster national security with countries outside the EU.