Prague, Oct 19 (CTK) – The conditions in Czech detention facilities for foreigners have always been human, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec wrote in a letter, which the ministry released on its website Monday, in reaction to sharp criticism by Ombudsman Anna Sabatova from last week.
Refugees have good-quality health care, clothes and proper catering available in the facilities, Chovanec (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) said.
Sabatova with her colleagues found fundamental shortcomings during their inspection of the refugee centres last week, and she asked the management of the Refugee Facilities Administration and the foreigner police to redress the situation immediately.
She said the refugees’ children in the detention facility in Bela-Jezova, central Bohemia, lived worse than Czech prisoners. They lack warm clothes and shoes, she added.
Chovanec dismissed it. The Interior Ministry, in cooperation with NGOs and charity organisations, have secured appropriate clothing and shoes for them, Chovanec said in the letter.
Sabatova also said the children were scared by security guards and policemen who were always present around them in the facilities.
“Police are not moving around in a standard way within a moderate regime,” Chovanec wrote, in reaction to the above mentioned objection, adding that the number of police officers in the detention centres would be decreasing.
Health care and a proper diet are also secured for children, he added.
Chovanec stressed that it was no possible to approach the detained foreigners with and without children differently. “A mere presence of a child cannot be a reason for not detaining a foreigner,” he said.
The migrants’ children do not have the status of detained persons, he added.
“Despite it, wee are taking and will take suitable measures to create more comfortable conditions for foreigners,” Chovanec wrote.
Children should have a playroom and an outdoor playground and the number of social workers and teachers should also rise there, he added.
However, Chovanec wrote that the access to interpreting services must be improved. They are needed, for instance, during medical check-ups.
“The existing system is functioning. However, we are doing our utmost to find suitable ways of its improvement,” he said.
Along with Sabatova, conditions in detention facilities for migrants have long been criticised by NOGs.
The Czech Republic is handling refugees rudely, according to Reuters.
Yet the Interior Ministry have long dismissed the criticism and claims it has proceeded in compliance with laws and regulations.
There are three detention facilities for foreigners in the Czech Republic: in Bela pod Bezdezem, in Vysni Lhoty, north Moravia, and in Drahonice, north Bohemia with the capacity of 1392 beds in total. There are 521 migrants staying there now.
