Prague, March 27 (CTK) – Tomas Haisman, a long-term director of the Interior Ministry’s migration and asylum policy section who took an uncompromising stance on war refugees, is likely to head the Czech embassy in Kosovo, the country that has become a symbol of refugeeism in Europe, weekly Respekt out yesterday writes.
Several media outlets reported some time ago that Haisman would like to end his career at a diplomatic mission.
Speculations emerged about the post of ambassador to Montenegro for him. However, Haisman dismissed it saying “they were speaking about another destination and not about an ambassador’s post.”
Respekt writes, referring to its sources, that Haisman is to become head of the Czech diplomatic mission in Pristina on the level of charge d’affaires.
This formally lower-level diplomat does the same work as an ambassador. However, unlike ambassadors whose appointment must be signed by the president and prime minister, the foreign minister’s signature is sufficient for a charge d’affaires, Respekt says.
Since President Milos Zeman, unlike the Czech government, does not recognise the state of Kosovo and he calls it “an Islamist terrorist dictatorship funded by the drug mafia,” he would never appoint an ambassador to it, his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek confirmed.
This is why a charge d’affaires is heading the Czech embassy in Pristina.
Haisman, who is to replace the current embassy head this summer, refused to confirm the information. The Foreign
Ministry is not willing to comment on it either, Respekt writes.
Experts working with migrants point out that Haisman has good professional preconditions for the post. He helped organise the resettlement of Bosnians in the Czech Republic during the first Balkan war and he can speak Serbo-Croatian.
However, his sometimes too sharp rhetoric is problematic. He has made many enemies due to this since 1992 when he started working at the Interior Min|istry and he might get on the wrong side of his future partners in Kosovo, too, Respekt writes.
Haisman called Syrians fleeing from the war “purely economic migrants” in 2015. “Let us say no to the devil,” Respekt quotes him as saying about the proposed system of mandatory quotas for the redistribution of migrants across the EU.
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