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REFUGEE CRISIS

IMMIGRATION

More random checks on Czech-Austria border

The Czech Republic will increase the number of random checks on its border with Austria starting this weekend, the interior ministry said in a statement.

More random checks on Czech-Austria border
Police at the Czech border. Photo: ČTK/Glück Dalibor

Checks will now be performed on 20 instead of 14 border crossing points as of Saturday, including those on minor roads, said the ministry.

“It is an expansion of a measure now in force,” said Interior Minister Milan Chovanec, stressing this was not a reintroduction of regular border checks.

The Czech Republic is part of Europe's Schengen passport-free travel zone, which has come under intense pressure as the EU struggles to cope with an unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants.

Some 200 police officers were deployed to assist with extra checks in mid-September. The ministry did not say how many more would be needed for the new measure.

The interior ministry also said it was considering cancelling some international trains should Austria close its borders with all neighbours except the Czech Republic to stem the passage of refugees heading to Germany.

Unlike EU neighbours Austria and Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia have so far seen few refugees and migrants seeking to transit through their territories to Germany and other western European countries in recent months.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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