Disturbance in the Cerveny Ujezd refugee camp following hepatitis epidemics
An incident at the Cerveny Ujezd refugee camp in the north of the country has led to some serious questions about conditions in camps in the Czech Republic. In recent years the Czech Republic has become home to a growing number of asylum seekers, but is the country really coping? Alena Skodova reports.
An epidemic of hepatitis-E has broken out in the Cerveny Ujezd refugee camp in North Bohemia. There are now 17 cases of the disease reported among asylum seekers from the Russian Federation. Three of them have illicitly left the camp and are being searched for by the police.
On Tuesday, 48 Russian citizens in the camp tried to prevent Czech employees from leaving, in a desperate gesture to draw attention to their situation. I spoke with the director of the Organization for Aid to Refugees, Pavel Tychtl, and asked him first why such a problem occurred? The Interior Ministry's spokeswoman, Gabriela Bartikova, has confirmed that police were called on Tuesday in order to appease the tense situation in the camp. So I asked Mr Tychtl if the camp was now under police surveillance. Hepatitis-E occurs mainly in Asia and the virus was probably carried by some of the refugees. So what are the overall hygienic conditions in refugee camps in the Czech Republic? Pavel Tychtl again.
