Chechens from Polish refugee
camps continue to apply for asylum in the Czech Republic
April 24th 2003 · Prague Watchdog
(Prague Watchdog) – Seventy two Chechens applied for asylum in the Czech
Republic today; since April 16 the total number of requests has reached 384. This
was told to Prague Watchdog by Marie Masa?íková of the Czech Interior
Ministry’s Press Department on Thursday afternoon.
In questionnaires prepared by the Czech Interior Ministry, Chechens blamed conditions
in Polish refugee camps for their decision to go to the Czech Republic.
Czech officials must not reveal the real reasons why refugees apply for asylum
here since this information is deemed confidential. According to Polish authorities,
Chechens had given up trying to get refugee status in Poland. Both Czech and Polish
officials said that these people evidently believe it will be easier for them
to get refugee status in the Czech Republic.
Today’s edition of Novinky.cz, a Czech web site, reported that the center
for asylum seekers in Vyšné Lhoty on the Czech-Polish border now holds
700 refugees, half of whom are from Chechnya. They quoted Daniel Topinka, head
of the center as saying, “We are vacating everything possible to make room
for these people, who now sleep wherever they can find available space.“
“More and more Chechens keep coming, saying the reason they’re applying
for asylum is because of the war in their country. Many more people are waiting
on the bridge, while others arrive here by taxi,“ explained an official
of the Czech Foreigners Police to Novinky.cz this afternoon.
On April 28, Tomáš Haišman, director of the Asylum and Immigration
Policy Department of the Czech Interior Ministry, will meet with the Polish Foreigners
Police in Warsaw to discuss this situation. All information on what transpired
during the session will be available afterwards, said Masa?íková.
According to the Czech Interior Ministry, a total of 8,482 foreigners applied
for asylum here last year, roughly half the number as in 2001, chiefly due to
an amendment to the Asylum Act. The number of asylum seekers from the Russian
Federation last year rose by 7 percent to 628 people. Prague Watchdog, in reading
the Czech Interior Ministry’s annual report, discovered that at least 80
percent were either residents of Chechnya or people of Chechen origin.