NGOs and charities say growing number of Czechs offering to help refugees
In recent weeks people’s perception of the migrant crisis appears to have changed and more Czechs are now contacting NGOs and charity organizations with offers of help. Charity collections have been established in Prague and Brno and a web page has been set up to coordinate the effort. I spoke to Magda Faltová, head of the Association for Integration and Migration, and asked if she too had registered the change-of-heart on the part of many Czechs.
Usually Czechs are very quick to respond to natural disasters at home and abroad and to send help. Why has it taken them so long in this case?
“Well, I think that there are several aspects. One is that Czech politicians were stressing all the time only the security problem involved and the threat that refugees present to the society etc, etc and they were not pointing to the fact that these people are in need and that they have fled their country because of war and other atrocities. And, also, the Czech media did not often picture people who are in need and desperate but people being escorted by the police while commenting that they had entered the country illegally and therefore had to be detained.”
So what do you think led to the change of heart?
“I think it was the developments in the last days and weeks where more and more families with children were coming to Hungary and transiting the Czech Republic and people saw that these people were coming with their children and that they don’t have anything and they just suffer. And everybody saw that these are not terrorists, these are refugees.”
“Well, that’s a bit problematic, because most of the refugees are transiting and not that much is needed actually. But, we will see how the situation will develop. Right now there are two or three places where people can bring clothes, toys and hygiene products, some volunteers are collecting donations and taking them to Hungary, to Budapest train station, but that’s basically it right now. Because right now there are not many refugees who want to stay or who are allowed to stay, but in the future we will need help for those whom the Czech Republic has agreed to relocate and resettle from their country of origin or Italy and Hungary. Then we will need volunteers, we will definitely need people who are willing to offer accommodation and so on.”
