Prague, Sept 29 (CTK) – Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka asked his British counterpart, Theresa May, to take action against hate crimes and attacks on Czechs and people from other European countries living in the United Kingdom, in a phone call yesterday, the Czech Government Office said in a press release.
The Czech government is alarmed by the increase in hate crimes in Britain, Sobotka said.
“Hate and violence are also aimed against Czechs who live and work in the UK. Unfortunately, one of the attacks resulted in the death of a Czech citizen,” he said.
A Czech man, 31, died in London last week after several young men assaulted him following a row in a pub. The British police arrested three men and accused one of them of murder.
May expressed her sympathy over the man’s death, the Government Office said.
Shortly after the fatal incident, the Czech Foreign Ministry said it does not consider the murder politically motivated.
Czech Police President Tomas Tuhy told public Czech Radio (CRo) that Czech police officers might start patrolling British streets if the security situation of Czechs markedly worsened.
A month ago, a large group of British teenagers attacked two Polish men in Harlow and one of the victims died.
The Polish top representatives asked the British government for cooperation in dealing with the attacks. The Poles are the second largest immigrant community in Britain. In 2014, nearly 800,000 of them lived in the country, according to official data.
According to Czech authorities, 37,000 Czechs worked in the United Kingdom last year.
Since the British vote on Brexit in June, the atmosphere in the country has changed and the number of politically motivated attacks on immigrants from other EU countries has increased, according to media.
British opponents of the EU membership campaigned against East Europeans working in the UK before the vote.
