Interior minister says random checks on border with Slovakia may be extended further

Random checks on the Czech-Slovak border may be extended even further, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan said on Czech Television on Sunday. The Czech government has already extended the original ten-day random border checks, which started on October 4, by another 20 days to November 2. Germany's checks on its border with Czechia could also be extended by up to two months. Mr. Rakušan reiterated that the European Union needs a workable joint solution to the issue of migration, with a focus on protecting the external Schengen border.

The opposition ANO party's shadow interior minister Jana Mračková Vildumetzová criticised Mr. Rakušan for having supported the EU's draft migration agreement, which she said "invites migrants to Europe". However, the interior minister objected that the very fact that large numbers of migrants were coming to Europe and that return procedures and asylum proceedings weren't working well was caused precisely by the fact that no joint migration pact had been approved.