Kostelec nad Orlici, East Bohemia, Aug 3 (CTK) – Only several people out of the hundreds of illegal refugees detained in the Czech Republic have asked for Czech asylum, Pavla Novotna, deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s asylum and migration policy department, told journalists yesterday.
“Among the inmates of the foreigner detention centres for those detained over illegal migration, only few individuals apply for asylum,” Novotna said during a visit to the centre for asylum seekers in Kostelec nad Orlici.
She said a total of 885 people have applied for Czech asylum this year. They have been placed in the reception centre in Zastavka, south Moravia, and then in the facilities in Kostelec and Havirov, north Moravia.
“The number of asylum seekers is higher than in the past, but not dramatically. For example, in 2013 and 2014, the total number of asylum applicants was 800 and 1100, respectively,” Novotna said.
Almost a half of them are from Ukraine, she said.
The Kostelec nad Orlici facility offers 275 beds for asylum seekers. There are 163 inmates in the facility now.
Most of them, 59, are Ukrainians, followed by Cubans (25), Russians (14) and Syrians (11), the facility’s director Ivana Vyhnalkova told reporters.
Regional police head Martin Cervicek said the Kostelec facility poses no problem in terms of security.
In the past five years, the local asylum seekers committed ten crimes, which is less than one percent of all crimes the local police have dealt with, Cervicek said.
The number of illegal refugees detained in the Czech Republic has been steadily rising. A total of 996 of them have been detained since mid-June, when Interior Minister Milan Chovanec tightened the checks.
The ministry expects about 3,500 illegal migrants to reach the Czech Republic this year, and up to 7000 in 2016.
