POLAND AND CZECHIA AGREE ON RECIPROCAL RE-ADMISSION OF ILLEGAL MIGRANTS
Poland and Czechia concluded an agreement in may on the reciprocal re-admission of person who illegally entered the respective neighbour country. The agreement is a consequence of a conference in Prague in March held by eastern central European states with a view to agree on a common immigration and asylum policy. The six attending states failed to reach agreement and as a result, each state is now acting on its own in an attempt to cope with the rising number of migrants to be deported from Germany in the wake of this country,s anti-refugee and migrants policy (see also FECL No.14, p.1).
Poland's Interior Minister, Andrzej Milczanowski announced at the occasion of the signing of the agreement together with his Czech counterpart, Ján Ruml, that a similar agreement was to be concluded at the end of June also with Slovakia.
Problems, however, remain between the to successor states of Czechoslovakia in that, according to Mr Ruml, Slovakia is opposing the setting up of frontier posts between the two former federative states. Prague will be unable to conclude a re-admission treaty with Germany sought by Bonn, as long as Slovakia refuses to give in on border controls. Germany earlier concluded such an agreement with Poland after strenuous negociations.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria has agreed to negociate the change of travel modalities with Czechia. In the view of Prague, such negociations are urgent. A senior official of the Czech government asserted after a visit in Sofia that thousands of Bulgarians were currently taking advantage of visa free entry regulations into Czechia in their attempt to get to Germany.
Czechia is also striving for a similar agreement with Romania.
Actually, Germany is pressing Czechia into an ever more restrictive policy by systematically sharpening controls at German-Czechian borders.
Of a total number of 188 "illegal" aliens caught by the Czech authorities within a week, 52 were Bulgarians and 29 Romanians. Of a total number of 92 persons re-admitted from Germany, Austria and Poland the same week, 39 were nationals of either Bulgaria or Romania. The largest number of deportees however was made up by persons from ex-Yugoslavia.
In Germany, authorities have begun recruiting volunteers as border guards. Any person willing to assist the authorities in defending German borders against unwanted "illegal" aliens can become a volunteer border guard after attending a three weeks(!) training class. At the same time, violent clashes involving border guards, illegal migrants and smugglers are in the rise, according to the chief of the German border police in Frankfurt/Oder (Eastern Germany).
Sources: Die Presse, 17.5.93; our sources.