Mikulov, South Moravia, Jan 27 (CTK) – Not only soldiers and police, but also volunteer firefighters may be deployed within the measures to be taken over migration along the Czech border, President Milos Zeman told journalists yesterday.
The idea was mooted by South Moravia regional governor Michal Hasek (Social Democrats, CSSD), Zeman said.
The firefighters may help the police and soldiers along the border in logistics, creating a background for their work, he added.
In Zeman’s presence, Hasek decorated ten police officers who had implemented the measures associated with the refugee influx in the Breclav area last year.
A police officer who wrote numbers on the checked refugees’ hands with a felt pen was among the decorated persons. For this, she was criticised.
Hasek said other countries had proceeded in a similar way to prevent chaos.
Zeman stressed he was watching the work of the foreigner police that regularly informed him about the number of detained migrants in the Czech Republic.
About five to ten of them are detained for a week, which is not a number that would require the deployment of police and soldiers for border protection, Zeman said.
The deployment must be rightly timed, he added.
If mixed patrols of the military and police appeared on the border too soon, this would be criticised by a part of the public, Zeman said.
However, the measure must not be taken too late either, he added.
The idea that firefighters should provide help is useful, Zeman said, adding that he would discuss it with representatives of other regions, too.
Hasek said there were 35,000 volunteer firefighters in South Moravia. Of them, 6500 are in emergency units that might help the military and the police with logistics.
Zeman stressed that last year, the Czech Republic had only faced a small migration wave, but in the future, a real migration wave could occur.
The biggest problems with refugees were faced in the Breclav area in the latter half of March in 2015.
They were coming on trains from the south to the Czech Republic. Police had to be called in to the local railway station where they detained hundreds of foreigners.
The police checked their identity and supervised the transfer of some refugees to refugee centers.
Hasek decorated the police with bronze and silver medals yesterday.
pv/dr/ms
