Czech Foreign Ministry to send team to Ukraine to assess situation of Czech expatriates

The Czech Foreign Ministry will send a monitoring team to western Ukraine to assess the situation of close to a hundred expatriates who have requested to be repatriated to their old homeland. The Czech cabinet this week agreed to comply with their request saying the authorities would proceed as fast as possible in arranging residence permits. The team, led by Karel Kühnl, the Czech Foreign Ministry’s special commissioner for Czechs living abroad, is to map the expats’ living circumstances, the security situation and their immediate needs which would enable the authorities to provide targeted assistance and give them a better idea of how many Czech expats might request to be repatriated. There are currently around 20,000 Czechs living in Ukraine.