Prague, April 26 (CTK) – The Czech Republic has decided to accept the first seven Syrian refugees on the basis of the EU quotas, however, three of them have left the facility in Greece to avoid resettlement, according to a regular migration report that the government should debate on Wednesday.
The Czech Republic is obliged to accept 2,691 refugees staying in the Mediterranean countries, which have been hit by the migrant wave the most, by the end of 2017.
Prague first voluntarily joined the relocation programme and pledged to accept 1,100 refugees from Italy and Greece. Later on, the number was increased by another 1,591 though the Czech Republic and several other EU countries voted against the extension of the original quotas.
In February, the Czech Republic offered to accept the first 20 refugees from Greece and ten from Italy in accordance with the EU quotas.
Seven Syrians, who stayed in Greece, passed security checks. Prague refused to accept the other 13 refugees from Greece and ten from Italy due to security risk.
“The files of these people, which Greece and Italy sent to the Czech Republic, did not contain a sufficient number of copies of personal documents to confirm the identity of these people,” the report says explaining the reasons why these refugees were rejected.
The report covering the period until mid-April also points out that the relocation of refugees has so far been stagnating in all aspects and is very slow. Twenty-one EU member states have offered to take care of 4,826 refugees, but only 1,195 of them have been resettled so far, the report says.
hol/dr/kva
