Czech police cars. File photoMOSCOW, Oct 1In recent months, the Czech Republic has faced a sharp increase in the number of refugees, while local police have detained a record number of «guides» of illegal migrants across the border, a quarter of them were Ukrainians, the Lidovky newspaper writes. guides» of illegal immigrants, although in past years there were only a few of them, and no more than ten were caught per year. At the same time, most often Ukrainians turn out to be smugglers. «In total, we detained 30 Ukrainian guides, 24 Czechs and 17 Syrians,» police department spokesman Josef Botan told Lidovky.Ukrainian refugee children in Europe may become the prey of the mafia, media write. Czechs living in the border regions are also involved in the illegal delivery of people, since there is no strict punishment for this. Due to the growing number of smugglers, Prague plans to tighten legislation: the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of the country are working on an amendment that will significantly toughen penalties for people smuggling. At the beginning of this year, the police detained almost 12,000 illegal migrants in the Czech Republic, which, according to Lidovky, the head of the police for foreigners, Milan Mayer, is significantly more than during the migration crisis in Europe in 2015. According to the publication, against the background of the migration wave, crime is growing only because of the actions of guides across the border, and the refugees themselves, according to the police, do not pose a particular danger to law and order. «On the other hand, the smugglers, according to the police, are dangerous, and therefore they need to be detained,» the article says. uploads/2022/10/9e2e3cd4f75435cbba56db25a25f2c6f.jpg» />The Czech Republic estimated the cost of Ukrainian refugees
