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Number of asylum applicants in Czech Republic rises

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Prague, Feb 15 (CTK) – The number of asylum applicants has been rising in the Czech Republic in the past two years with 1525 applications received in 2015, Daniel Chytil, from the Czech Statistical Office (CSU), said on Monday.

He said the country is one of the least attractive in Europe, both in absolute and relative figures.

“We experienced the migrant crisis in a different period. In 2001, there were about 12 times more applicants,” he said.

“Though the numbers have been increasing in the past two years, the situation is not dramatic. In European comparison, we are one of the least attractive countries,” Chytil said.

He said one of the reasons for the high numbers in the past was the introduction of visas with Ukraine and the “very liberal asylum law” that allowed asylum applicants to work.

When the Czech Republic entered the EU in 2004, the numbers of applicants for international protection were decreasing and they have remained low.

The reason is that the Czech Republic is not a Schengen Area border country and that it only has the area’s outer border at airports.

The refugees should apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter.

The Czech Republic differs from the other EU countries by the countries of origin of the asylum applicants.

One third of applicants in the EU are from Syria, 14 percent from Afghanistan, 11 percent from Iraq and 6 percent from Albania.

In the Czech Republic, 45 percent of protection applicants were people from Ukraine, 9 percent from Syria, 8 percent from Cuba and 6 percent from Vietnam.

“In the case of Cubans and Vietnamese, the reasons are historical. There are quite strong communities of Vietnamese in this country, and human rights play a role in the case of Cubans. This is a Czech specificity in Europe,” Chytil said.

In 2014, people who were granted asylum formed 0.6 percent of foreigners on Czech territory. They mainly came from Russia, Afghanistan and Belarus. The recipients of temporary protection were mainly Syrians.

Chytil said the Czech Republic provides mainly complementary, or temporary protection for migrants. In 2014, it granted it in three quarters of the positively settled applications.

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