According to Radio Prague, the first candidates for 'Czech registration' will arrive in the country as early as autumn of this year, including more than 80 Syrians whom the Czech Republic is obliged to accept under the agreement concluded between the EU and Turkey. According to the ČTK news agency, citing a report by the Czech Interior Ministry presented at a government meeting, the candidates for relocation to the Czech Republic are ten refugees currently in Greece and 81 Syrians from migration camps in Turkey.
After these people arrive in the Czech Republic, state authorities will begin the process of granting them the status of persons under international protection. Three families from Greece have already been vetted by security services, while the screening of Syrian asylum seekers has not yet been completed.
«We will choose these people ourselves and check whether they pose a threat. If we do not obtain enough information, we will of course not accept them in the Czech Republic,» emphasizes Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Andrej Babiš is categorically opposed to accepting Syrian refugees in the Czech Republic. «When you see today how even more developed countries with different traditions of receiving migrants are unable to integrate people arriving from the Middle East and Africa into society, you should not be surprised that I oppose accepting any refugees,» he said in an interview with the newspaper Právo.
«I do not believe that they are capable of integrating into our society. This is a huge risk, especially given the atrocities committed by some people who did not receive asylum in Germany. In this situation, the Czech Republic should not accept any refugees,» asserts Andrej Babiš, while reminding that he proposed that the Czech government file a lawsuit against the introduction of quotas by the European Commission.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, for his part, reminds that the government approved the program for accepting Syrians a year ago. He is supported by Deputy Prime Minister Pavel Bělobrádek. «It will be right to fulfill the commitments we have undertaken, and the Interior Ministry should thoroughly vet the candidates,» he commented on the situation in an interview with Právo.
Press secretary of the Czech President Jiří Ovčáček expressed Prague Castle's critical attitude towards the government's plans, writing on Facebook about «the full responsibility of Prime Minister Sobotka for bringing 80 Syrians here».
How are candidates selected that, from the point of view of state authorities, can be included in the integration program for receiving refugees? «In the process of considering relocation, we proceed primarily from the selection previously made by the UN Refugee Agency. It provides us with groups of people in the most distressed situations. We have no special criteria here. What is important for us is that the refugees have serious reasons to leave their country, in this case Syria. Then we conduct a security check of the selected individuals, during which we assess the level of risk they may pose. Based on this, our refugee relocation mission already evaluates individual candidates or individual families,» explains Adam Kittl, an official from the Migration and Refugee Policy Department of the Czech Interior Ministry.
In February of this year, the Czech Republic offered to relocate twenty people from Greece and ten from Italy. After screening, at the end of April 2016, four Syrians from Greece entered the country. Initially, this group was supposed to consist of seven people, but three left the migration camp where they were awaiting transport to Czech territory. Another thirteen people were rejected by the Czech Republic itself based on the results of checks conducted by the intelligence services. According to the competent authorities, they did not have enough documents to confirm their identity.
One can also recall the situation surrounding the relocation to the Czech Republic of Christian refugees from Iraq, whose transfer was handled by the charity organization Generace 21. Some of the arrivals were dissatisfied with the provided living conditions and chose to move to Germany, several families returned to their homeland in Iraq, after which the Czech government refused to continue supporting this program.
However, according to Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier, the Czech Republic is ready to accept refugees who have undergone appropriate selection. «We have a well-established integration policy, and we have established cooperation with charitable and other organizations,» emphasizes the minister.