"We cannot close our eyes to the fact that the number of migrants entering the Czech Republic illegally has increased significantly in recent months," Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said at a press conference on Tuesday (August 23). According to the news agency dpa, Rakusan said that most of the irregular migrants have come from Syria.

The conservative politician called for better protection of the European Union's (EU) external borders and a more effective crackdown on migrant-smuggling networks, dpa reported.

"Gangs of smugglers have sensed an opportunity and are once again illegally transporting migrants through our territory. We want tougher penalties for traffickers," he said on Twitter during a visit of the exercise near the border with neighboring Slovakia.

While the whole of the EU saw an increase in irregular border crossings in the first seven months of the year, Frontex data shows, Czech police says it registered 7,735 irregular arrivals between January 1 and August 21 this year.

Last year's total was 11,170, according to police data. Neither number includes what Czech authorities call "transit migrants," whose target country is not the Czech Republic but western European countries like Germany, France or the UK. This year, the number of "transit migrants" is already close to three times higher than during all of 2021.

Unlike its neighbors Poland and Slovakia, the Czech Republic does not have an external EU border.

Refugees fleeing Ukraine is one of the government's top priorities during its six-months Presidency of the EU Council, which the Czech Republic took over from France on July 1. The country said it would pay particular attention to providing children with access to education and giving women access to the labor market.

Also read: Czech Republic eyes refugee labor boost

Reintroducing identity checks

The two-day training exercise in the Czech-Slovakian border region is being attended by police officers, 150 soldiers and 30 customs officials, dpa reported.

Police are reintroducing identity checks at more than 20 rail and road border crossings as part of the exercise. Both countries belong to the Schengen Area, the passport-free zone used by many EU member states and some other European countries.

According to the Interior Ministry, the goal of the exercise is to "practice a fictitious situation" in case the government "ordered the closure of the border with Slovakia due to illegal migration."

The number of migrants who arrive in the Czech Republic irregularly has increased steadily since 2017, when 4,738 arrivals were recorded. (This figure does not include "transit migrants".)

Also read: EU, Red Cross launch mental health program for Ukrainians

With dpa