The Army of the Czech Republic issued a statement, announcing that more than 300 Czech soldiers have been deployed to the country’s border with Slovakia, where they will assist law enforcement in the South Moravian, Zlin, and Moravian-Silesian regions in conducting border checks.

The Czech military has been deployed in an effort to stop the flood of illegal migrants pouring into the Czech Republic from Slovakia.

“A total of 320 soldiers of the armed forces of the Czech Republic will be prepared, who will be deployed in 4 rotations. These are soldiers from ground forces units, who will be supplemented by members of the active reserve. Soldiers will perform tasks in joint patrols,” the Army of the Czech Republic said.

Border controls were reintroduced by the Czech Republic last month due to the snowballing number of illegal migrants, mainly Syrians, mostly coming from Turkey. Earlier this week, Czech government announced an extension of security measures on the border for another 20 days, until late October.

At the time, Czech Interior Ministry said that its decision to launch border controls was triggered by the fact that almost 12,000 illegal migrants had been detained this year – more than during the migrant crisis of 2015.

According to the Czech Foreign Police, the border checks are bearing fruit, and by the fifth day of the checks, which were launched on September 29, there was ‘a slight decrease’ in the number of illegal aliens.

As of October 5, Czech law enforcement officials checked almost 200,000 people and 120,000 vehicles.

“We found over 1,600 people involved in illegal transit migration. We did not allow more than 500 people into the territory of the Czech Republic,” the chief of the Czech Foreign Police said.

The Czech Republic’s decision to reinstate border controls prompted neighboring Austria to also introduce checks on its border with Slovakia.

Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and Austrian officials have been also engaged in intensive discussions on enhanced protection of the external borders of the Schengen area, since the total period of a temporary reintroduction of controls at the national level cannot exceed two months under EU rules.