Czech police detain 8,000 plus illegally-staying foreigners in 2015
Xinhua, February 5, 2016 Adjust font size:
Czech police detained 8,563 foreigners who stayed illegally in the Czech Republic in 2015, said the Czech foreigner police on Thursday.
The number of detained foreigners in 2015 were 3,741 more than in 2014, and one quarter of the detained were citizens of Syria.
The number of detained Syrians rose from 142 to 2016 year on year, due to the full-blown migrant crisis in Europe.
Ukraine came second in the number of illegal immigrants in the Czech Republic of whom 1,224 were detained.
On third place were citizens of Kuwait with 588 persons. Kuwaitis entered the Czech Republic often as spa guests who do not leave the country after the valid period of stay expired.
The biggest increase in the illegally staying foreigners recorded by the police were citizens of Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They often use the Czech Republic as a transit country and intended to continue their journey to other western countries, such as Germany or Sweden.
Czech Police President Tomas Tuhy said that the Enormous growth in the number of illegally staying foreigners was caused by transit migration.
Totally 467,562 foreigners stayed legally in the Czech Republic at the end of 2015, 15,639 higher than in 2014. Enditem