Prague, Feb 18 (CTK) – Refugees from German asylum camps near the Czech-German border are going to the Czech towns and villages on the other side of the border on a daily basis, mostly for shopping, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote on Thursday.
“If they cross the border, this may threaten their chances of being granted asylum in the Czech Republic,” Pavel Ceska, head of the North Bohemia foreigner police, said some time ago.
However, he admitted yesterday that the situation was different now, MfD writes.
“The national border is being crossed. The refugees or asylum seekers in Germany are coming to do shopping on its Czech side,” Ceska said.
Germans have decided that they will not complicate the asylum proceedings to the refugees over their crossing the border, he added.
As a result, the migrants are only threatened with being fined by Czech police officers if they cross the border, MfD writes.
The fine may be up to 3,000 crowns, but the real sanctions are lower, Ceska said.
The migrants do pay, MfD writes. “When they do some shopping here, some money remains left to them,” Ceska said.
In fact, the asylum seekers are paid an allowance in Germany.
Ceska said he did not know the usual sum of the fine.
[After imposing a fine] Czech police transport the refugees to the German side of the border where they pass them to their German counterparts, MfD writes.
“In Cinovec, north Bohemia, the police have intervened four times and they detained 15 people in Dolni Poustevna, north Bohemia,” its mayor Vladimir Tesarik is quoted as saying.
“They are coming here, this is common knowledge,” Tesarik said.
“I have a small child. I am afraid of what may happen,” he added.
The police have recorded four cases in Moldava, north Bohemia, this year, MfD writes.
“But these are only those when the police detained some refugees,” deputy mayor Eva Kardova said.
“They are much more frequently here. We can see them in the area every day. They are coming here for cheaper food and cigarettes,” she added.
“Everyone is afraid of theft here,” Kardova said, adding that the town hall would buy some more CCTVs.
The North Bohemia foreigner police are also preparing themselves for the expected influx of refugees in the spring, MfD writes.
They have recruited another 25 staff, up to the current 125, it adds.
