Prague, May 5 (CTK) – The European emergency line for victims 116 006, which has been operating in the Czech Republic since January 2015, answered 3,700 calls during its first year in operation, with four-fifths of the callers being women, Marketa Hlavicova, from the White Circle of Safety (BKB), said on Thursday.
The BKB is a NGO that runs the emergency line in the Czech Republic.
The line operates in eight EU countries, but it offers nonstop operation only in the Czech Republic, Austria and Denmark.
The line is cost-free in the Czech Republic.
It can be called by victims and people close to them, witnesses of crime, people endangered by domestic violence and dead victims’ relatives.
“Most calls concern domestic violence involving both male and female callers, and also stalking and threats,” Hlavicova said.
She said the callers also include people who consider themselves victims though they did not face any crime or offence. The line’s experts discuss their problems with them as well, Hlavicova said.
The callers’ phone numbers are invisible to the consulted experts, nor do the callers have to present their personal data.
Last year, almost one third of the calls concerned domestic violence, 13 percent other crimes, 6 percent offences and the rest had other motives, Hlavicova said.
Nine percent of the calls were assessed as misuse of the line by its staff, she said.
The line received 306 calls a month on average. Men made up 22 percent of the callers.
Czech men, together with Portuguese men, shun calling the emergency line most of all, a survey has shown.
The highest share of men among the callers, 41 percent, was in Austria and the Netherlands.
