Prague to establish foreigners' integration centre

Prague, Oct 11 (CTK) - Prague will establish a centre to help foreigners integrate into Czech society that will cooperate with NGOs and state and municipal institutions, councillor Lukas Kaucky (Social Democrats, CSSD), who is in charge of ethnic minorities, told reporters Tuesday.

"The aim is to unify and coordinate the provision of services for foreigners that are now provided by NGOs and city districts and unfortunately they are of various quality and extent," Kaucky said.

The new centre will offer consultancy, information and education. It will, for instance, organise Czech language courses.

The centre will be set up as a public benefit organisation with four branches seated on the premises of four district authorities.

The project costs have been put at 12.4 million crowns of which the city will pay three million and it will seek the rest from an EU fund.

According to the City Hall, the highest number of foreigners live in the Prague 4 district as well as in dormitories and at modern housing estates on the outskirts of Prague.

Prague opened an integration centre for foreigners in the Libus neighbourhood in the past over tense relations between local residents and the Vietnamese community.

However, the centre was abolished at the beginning of the summer after less than one year since the Vietnamese did not use it very often.