Germany is increasing passport controls on Czech border

Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan will discuss passport and ID controls on the Czech-German border with German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. On Thursday she said that Germany is strengthening police patrols at the Czech and Polish borders due to illegal migration. The police will be supplemented by mobile units and will more intensively carry out random checks.

Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and Saxon Interior Minister Armin Schuster will also take part in the meeting in Petrovice na Ústecku in the Ústí nad Labem, news agency ČTK reported.

Rakušan said two weeks ago that he does not expect Germany to introduce regular checks on the Czech border due to migration.

Faeser rejected the demands of the representatives of Saxony and Brandenburg to introduce permanent checks on the borders with Czechia and Poland. He insists that the prerequisite for such a step would be a serious threat to public order and internal security and considers it a "measure of last resort."

In April, according to data from Germany’s Federal Interior Ministry, the German police recorded 2,427 cases of illegal border crossing from Poland, nearly 1,300 on the border with Austria, and about 900 on the Czech border.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed with the state prime ministers that, depending on the migration situation, Germany can introduce temporary border controls with its neighbors along the lines of those it has been carrying out since 2015 on the border with Austria. Saxon Interior Minister Armin Schuster together with his Brandenburg colleague Michael Stübgen asked Faeser about checks on the borders with Czechia and Poland.

According to Rakušan, the level of illegal migration is similar to previous years. From the German side, Czechia has no information about any problems, he added.

Slovakia has introduced temporary controls at the borders with Czechia, Poland, Austria, and Hungary from May 24 to June 8 due to the Globsec international conference in Bratislava and other large events including a meeting of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club.