Prague, April 14 (CTK) – Another 16 Christian refugees from Iraq, who were staying in Brno, airlifted to the Czech Republic by the Generation 21 Endowment, collected their passports as they decided to leave the country, the Generation 21 Endowment has said on its webpage.
Their plans are not known, the Generation 21 Endowment said.
The server Novinky.cz wrote that the Czech police stopped a van with a Czech driver and the Iraqi group in the Usti Region close to the German border tonight.
The police questioned both the Iraqis and the driver and they will soon release them again as they were detained on Czech territory and have not violated any law so far, the server writes.
The server writes the group was clearly heading for Germany.
The group asked the Interior Ministry to end their asylum status yesterday.
“All the persons were returned their travel documents and issued a three-day exit order,” Interior Ministry spokeswoman Lucie Novakova has said online.
“The Iraqis were immediately offered help by the Red Cross, but they refused it,” Novakova said.
The Interior Ministry officials informed all the Iraqis that they must not illegally cross the border of any other EU country and that the exit order should be used to leave the whole of the EU, she added.
The Endowment has brought 89 refugees to the Czech Republic. According to the original plan, over 150 were to arrive in the country.
However, the government terminated the project of resettling refugees from Iraq to the Czech Republic since a group of more than 20 of them rejected Czech asylum and left the accommodation facility in Okrouhlik near Jihlava, south Moravia, for Germany, earlier this month.
The German authorities want to return them to the Czech Republic.
A week ago, an eight-member family returned to Iraq from Brno, saying they were homesick.
“We confirm that another 16 refugees from Brno have collected their travel documents from Czech authorities yesterday,” the Endowment said.
The group said it was ready to continue its care of the remaining 40 refugees, at least during the first year of their stay in the Czech Republic.
They are staying in Prague and in Sobesovice, north Moravia.
The group’s representatives have admitted that “unfortunately factors have appeared in the project” they had not presumed.
“Some of the refugees have decided to leave without having tried real life in this country with our support and among the people who were ready to accept them with love,” the Endowment said.
“We cannot prevent them from doing this,” it added.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) said last week that the Czech Republic cannot serve as a travel agency bringing these refugees closer to West Europe and their countries of destination, such as Germany.
He has told the server Novinky.cz that the refugees received exit visas for three days.
Server also wrote that “later on Thursday, they will go to the Main Railway Station in Prague,” from where they evidently want to leave for Germany.
The South Moravia Region will have the conditions of the financial aid to the Endowment checked, regional governor Michal Hasek (CSSD), now in Croatia, said.
“After I return to the Czech Republic, I will order a check of the provision of the support. Based on this, it will be clear whether the Endowment will return the money,” Hasek said.
He said the “collapse of the project” would strongly affect the perception of migrants in the Czech Republic.
Zdenek Kasparek, from the Silesia Deaconry, that is in charge of the refugees in the Moravia-Silesia Region, said the problem had not appeared in the region.
Next week, the refugees are to move into flats, Kasparek said.
