Brno, Nov 14 (CTK) – Czech MP Jeronym Tejc (Social Democrats, CSSD) wants to propose changes to asylum legislation to accelerate the expelling of unsuccessful applicants to promote security in connection with the risks posed by migration because many foreigners abuse the laws, he told journalists on Monday.
He said he also considers proposing deleting the right to asylum granted to foreigners persecuted for asserting political rights and freedoms.
Jiri Dienstbier (CSSD), the outgoing human rights minister, told CTK that Tejc is a national socialist rather than a CSSD member.
He said if his proposals were passed, the Czech Republic would give up its international commitments.
Tejc, who took part in the meeting with President Milos Zeman in Lany, which aimed to overthrow Bohuslav Sobotka as CSSD chairman and so prevent his appointment as prime minister after the CSSD won the general election in 2013, is now speculated about as a possible candidate for the post of CSSD chairman.
Tejc said he would first submit the proposals to Sobotka and only then will he seek support among his fellow party members and lawmakers.
“If I submit it by the year’s end, it could be discussed next spring and take effect next summer,” Tejc said.
He said the border is now secured technically, but it is necessary to prepare for thousands of refugees legislatively as well.
He gave as an example the possibility of Germany ceasing to accept refugees, who would end up in the Czech Republic.
Tejc said 1500 foreigners applied for asylum last year. In the first five months of this year, there were more than 600 of them.
They came from Syria, Iraq and other countries.
Tejc said he is not sure that the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms must include an article which binds the Czech Republic to providing the right to asylum to such a broad extent.
If it were deleted, it would be possible to react to a new situation with a change to legislation much more flexibly.
Tejc’s proposal will not be a topic for the party in the elections next year, Sobotka told Czech Radio later on Monday.
The party will not set out on the path of “desperate populism,” he added.
Sobotka said this was only Tejc’s individual effort.
“We are not facing any problem with the quantity of refugees. We have no problem with the integration of the people who ask for asylum and get it,” he added.
The party should focus on different affairs, Sobotka said.
“If the proposal is to implicate a change in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, this is unacceptable for the Social Democrats,” he added.
The change would require the constitutional, or three-fifth majority of votes, in parliament because the Charter is part of the constitution.
Tejc is also opposed to the fact that asylum applicants can challenge a possibly negative verdict on asylum by the Interior Ministry with courts. Until the courts make a valid decision, the applicants can stay in Czech territory.
Tejc also proposed that all migrants who commit a witting crime in Czech territory should be stripped of asylum.
“At present, we can deny asylum to those who committed only a particularly severe crime,” Tejc said.
With his proposal, Tejc is trampling on the memory of his Social Democrat predecessors when he is forgetting that “Czechoslovak Social Democrats were among those who were seeking help in exile for almost 50 years in a row in the 20th century,” Dienstbier said.
