The Slovak government has extended its border controls until 23 November. The checks, established in early October, were initially set to expire on Friday.
The government in Bratislava took the decision following similar measures by neighbouring Poland and Czech Republic along their borders with Slovakia.
On Thursday, Poland announced it would be extending its border controls until 22 November. These were initially put into place in early October as an effort to combat illegal immigration through its Slovak neighbour. The Czech Republic made an identical decision on Wednesday.
These checks were initially introduced on 4 October for a ten-day period, in Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria. The trio had already extended these measures once before to Thursday, 2 November.
Maciej Wasik, Poland’s Deputy Interior Minister, stated on Polish public radio on Thursday that the checks had yielded results in the past month, convincing the Slovak authorities to take action.
In recent times, Slovakia has seen an increase in the number of migrants arriving primarily from Serbia via Hungary, bound mainly for wealthier Western European countries.
The new Slovak government, comprising two social democratic parties and a nationalist party, has pledged to prioritise the fight against human trafficking.
Two million euros will be invested to ensure the continued controls on the Hungarian border, the government announced on Thursday.
On Monday, it had already deployed hundreds of additional police and troops to its border with Hungary to combat increasing illegal immigration.
Since the start of the year, over 46,000 undocumented migrants have been detected at Slovakia’s borders, according to newly-appointed Prime Minister Robert Fico.
