Prague, July 9 (CTK) – The Czech Republic would be able to accept more than 1500 refugees in the years to come, representatives of the organisations in aid of refugees say in reaction to the figure approved by the Czech cabinet.
They say the Czech Republic proved this in the past, and add that the current hysteria and fomenting of xenophobia are exaggerated.
Only a fraction of refugees who leave the crisis regions head for Europe. Most refugees end in the states neighbouring on their homeland, the organisations say.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says Syria alone has been left by four million people over the internal armed conflict. Almost a half of them stay in Turkey, and the rest in the other neighbouring countries – Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
Refugees have also been coming from the north of Africa.
On Wednesday, the Czech government approved the plan to accept 1500 refugees by 2017. Out of them, 400 are to be accepted this year, 700 in 2016 and 400 in 2017.
In 1992, the Czech Republic accepted about 3500 people in connection with the war in the former Yugoslavia. Out of them, some 2000 remained in the Czech Republic even after the conflict ended.
In the late 1990s, about 1000 Kosovo Albanians found refuge in the Czech Republic. Most of them returned home after the fighting ended in their homeland.
“The present [planned] figure is below the Czech Republic’s capacity. This is undignified. The country accepted more people at the time when its situation was far worse, also in terms of economy,” Vladislav Guenter, head of the Czech Centre for the Integration of Foreigners, told CTK.
In the past, the Czech state temporarily opened the necessary facilities for foreigners who needed protection. At present, there is no will to reopen them. The Czech government thus yields to a part of the population who protest against the influx of foreigners, Guenter said.
He said people’s reactions to the migration wave, which border on hysteria, show that “the Czechs have abandoned their habit to accept refugees.”
Jan Schroth, from the International Organisation for Migration, said the Czech Republic would have [more] capacities for the acceptance of migrants “if it wanted to.”
He said the Czech Republic is a transit country that refugees do not head for.
“In the past, the refugee issue was not linked to security problems. Unfortunately, the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism has changed the situation, though no inter-connection has been proved,” Schroth said.
Martin Rozumek, director of the Organisation for Aid to Refugees, said there are about 55 million refugees all over the world. Out of them, 626,000 applied for asylum in the EU, Rozumek said.
“However, there are countries in the EU, which make up a half of all members and include the Czech Republic, that register record low numbers of asylum seekers. The Czech Republic registered only 1,156 of them in 2014,” Rozumek said.
In the same period, Germany registered 203,000 applications, Sweden 81,000 and Hungary 43,000, he said.
In the EU, only Italians, Germans, Swedes, Hungarians, Greeks and French can rightfully feel “flooded by refugees,” he said.
He said the tragedies of refugees dying while crossing the Mediterranean could be prevented by the introduction of humanitarian visas, resettlement programmes, evacuation of patients, reuniting of families and also study and work visas.
A single asylum procedure should exist. The refugees who would gain asylum should be distributed among various countries according to their family ties. The countries with a higher number of asylum holders should receive compensation, Rozumek said.
Guenter drew a parallel between the Czech population’s fears of refugees and the situation in France years ago, when people showed fear of the inflow of Polish workforce.
“The issue is always taken up by some ‘patriots.’ Afterwards it always turns out that no problem arose. As soon as refugees reach the Czech Republic, it will turn out that this is no end of the world or the decline of culture,” Guenter said.
If so, the society may get accustomed to refugees and the Czech government may reassess its approach, he added.
Number of asylum seekers and number of persons who were granted Czech asylum in 1993-2014:
Year Number of applications Number of new asylum holders
1993 2207 250
1994 1187 116
1995 1417 59
1996 2211 162
1997 2109 96
1998 4085 78
1999 7220 79
2000 8788 133
2001 18.094 83
2002 8484 103
2003 11.400 208
2004 5459 142
2005 4021 251
2006 3016 268
2007 1878 191
2008 1656 157
2009 1258 75
2010 833 125
2011 756 108
2012 753 49
2013 707 95
2014 1156 82
Source: Czech Statistical Office
