In the town of Kostelec nad Orlicí there is a refugee camp where foreigners await their fate.
As Radio Prague notes, the town of Kostelec nad Orlicí has only 6,000 residents. On the edge of town, in a building that once housed military barracks, a refugee camp is located. On open house days, local residents can get to know their neighbors, most of whom come from the former republics of the Soviet Union.
The children prepared a concert for visitors. "My name is Maria, I am from Kazakhstan, but by nationality I am Armenian. I have been here for six months. I like everything, I play, I go to the children's center," says a young inhabitant of the camp.
The adults prepared dishes of national cuisine, which they treat the Czechs who came to meet them. They have all applied for asylum and are waiting for the authorities to decide their fate – whether they can stay in the country. How many foreigners in total live in the former barracks building is a difficult question.
"We have statistical and factual data. Physically, we currently have 214 clients living here, while about 400 are registered, so half are not in the camp but somewhere else. The length of their stay in the center varies greatly. The process of granting refugee status is handled by the Department for Migration, so some spend very little time here – a few months, but some can spend several years here," explains the director of the center, Ivana Vyhnálková.
Thus, in the town of Kostelec, there are usually several hundred migrants, and they all live in the country legally, having submitted a corresponding application for asylum.
Although the camp, which houses mostly people from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and other countries of the former USSR, has existed in the town for a long time, some residents still protest against such proximity. Local police have also encountered the spread of panic rumors that have nothing to do with reality.
"For example, someone unknown spread rumors that the camp inhabitants raped a girl. That was an absolute lie, having nothing to do with reality. The police also confirmed that it was fiction – nothing of the sort happened. There was also a rumor that a body of a person from the camp was found in a trash bin in front of a shopping center. We don't know where that information came from. In short, it's all complete nonsense," says the director.
Over the years of the camp's existence, the distrust and fears of local residents regarding the refugee camp have taken various forms.
"I know that Kostelec had a hard time with this proximity – initially, residents really did not want this center to be here. Then there was a period of relative calm. Then a new problem appeared – 'the terrible danger that we will be overrun by Islamic terrorists.' And since that did not happen, things went as usual – both groups live side by side, knowing almost nothing about each other. Of course, for some Czechs, the proximity to the camp helped change their established views, taught them to live alongside representatives of other nations. However, there is another group of people whom nothing can change," believes the mayor of the town, František Kinský.
Currently, more than half a million foreigners are legally present in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic has not had such historical experience, unlike Western countries – during the post-war migration, Czechs lived behind the 'Iron Curtain.' In first place are Ukrainians and Slovaks. Next come Vietnamese, Russians, Germans, and Poles.
1,600 people have applied for refugee status, that is, less than 0.3% of the total number. And only about two dozen of them came here from Africa and the Middle East. That is, although the number of foreigners in the country has indeed risen to a historical maximum, this has nothing to do with an influx of refugees from Muslim countries.
Experts note that the Czech Republic does not create a breeding ground for Islamism, and the problems that arise in connection with the increase in the number of foreigners are social in nature – in some regions, real estate prices are rising. The number of students in schools and patients in clinics is increasing.
A phenomenon such as cross-border labor resources has also appeared in the country – Slovaks and Poles can commute to work across the border. However, around some enterprises, a large number of permanently residing workers from abroad accumulate, many of whom want to settle in the Czech Republic permanently. In the village of Kvasiny, due to the demographic situation, a Center for the Integration of Foreigners was established.
"Currently, we have about 400 Ukrainians, mostly men aged 25-45. So there is a trend of family reunification, when their families move to our region. Based on this, we assess the capabilities of our schools and kindergartens – how ready they are for the arrival of foreign children, how many places there are, whether teachers are prepared, whether any auxiliary services can be used," explains a center employee, Petra Tuzarová.
A separate and significant group of foreigners who want to stay in the country are students of Czech universities. "We were looking for a country that was economically more stable than Ukraine, and at the same time Slavic, so that it would not be so difficult to study and learn the language. I was choosing between Poland and the Czech Republic and settled on the Czech Republic because my godfather lives here, who helped me settle in. Everything turned out great, and this is probably the country of my dreams," says Irina Sharapenko from Kyiv, who studies at the University of Pardubice.
But how tolerant are the residents of the 'country of dreams' towards a student from Ukraine?
“In general, Czechs treat me well. When they find out I’m from Ukraine, they ask if I have any problems, if they should speak more slowly. There were a couple of unpleasant moments when the fact that I’m Ukrainian was perceived negatively. Sometimes a lecturer in the middle of a class in a large auditorium would make ugly jokes about Ukrainians – that wasn’t very pleasant,” says Irina.
Her acquaintances report a lecturer who deliberately “failed” students with a Russian accent in exams. The 1968 invasion and the twenty-year presence of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia could not but affect attitudes toward the Russian language.
Member of the Christian Democratic Party, sociologist Ivan Gabal voted in parliament against the amendment tightening the Law on Foreigners. “This amendment made it more difficult for people who want to work here to come. It also discriminated against foreigners in terms of judicial proceedings, protection, etc. I believe that if someone comes here to work, they should enjoy protection and be treated with dignity. They cannot be simply rightless guest workers here, treated worse by both the employer and the state than foreigners with permanent residence.”
Ivan Gabal also believes that the Czech Republic should adopt the experience of Western countries and not keep those who come to the country seeking asylum in closed prison-type centers. In a social environment, their integration will be faster and more effective. The sociologist is confident that enterprises should also be interested in ensuring that foreigners not only work in their workshops but also find common ground with the local population – both literally and figuratively.
On the Czech political scene, Ivan Gabal believes, the migration crisis “without migrants” was used by certain parties as a method of intimidating voters, allowing them to gain more votes on the wave of rhetoric against accepting refugees. Anti-migrant slogans found the greatest response in the country’s poor regions.
“At some point we will begin to understand that we did not have any massive influx of migrants, that on the contrary – we lack people, that we need more people from Ukraine, from the former USSR countries. So I think the situation with legislation will change, and that we are more open compared to Hungary and Slovakia,” the sociologist believes.