Slovakia temporarily reintroduces checks at border with Hungary

The Slovak government decided on Wednesday to temporarily reintroduce border controls at Slovakia's internal border with Hungary, Paraméter reports.

The temporary measure will be in force from Thursday, 5 October, until 14 October, and may be extended.

"The checks will be carried out along the entire length of Slovakia's internal border with Hungary in a flexible manner, depending on the current threat and the evolving security situation," the Slovak Interior Ministry said in a statement. The measure is designed to reduce the number of illegal migrants trying to reach other EU countries via Slovakia.

In response to the increasing migratory pressure, both Poland and the Czech Republic introduced temporary controls on their borders with Slovakia on 3 October, so the Slovak government's reintroduction of checks along the Hungarian border may be a reaction to this.

Illegal migrants have recently been entering Slovakia in vast numbers from Hungary. We reported from the villages in southern Slovakia most affected by the migration wave in this article.

The issue of migration was one of the central themes of last week's early parliamentary elections in Slovakia. Robert Fico, who was forced to resign as prime minister in 2018 but has in recent years returned as a populist leader won the election on Saturday. One of the main campaign themes of Fico's Smer party was precisely the handling of the migration crisis, with the party promising tougher action against migrants crossing the country's border illegally.