Foreign Police: illegal migration decreases

It was not so long ago that citizens of Czechoslovakia were risking imprisonment and in many cases their lives trying to leave the country for the West. It is impossible to count all those who fled Czechoslovakia during the forty-one years between the communist takeover in February 1948 and the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. The lowest verifiable number is 170,938, but the estimates are much higher - unofficial statistics suggest anything between 250,000 to half a million. Czechs and Slovaks emigrated to the West in two main waves: after the communist coup in 1948 and after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968.

Foreign Police: illegal migration decreases

Three hundred and twenty-seven Czechs and Slovaks died at the Czechoslovak borders while trying to flee into exile. The majority were shot dead by communist border police, some died on electric fences, a few stepped on landmines and the rest died of other causes while being chased by border police.

After the fall of communism the tables turned. Refugees from other countries started crossing Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic on their way to the free and prosperous West. Some have even chosen the Czech Republic as their new home. But some people come to this country illegally, without documents, and either try to proceed westwards or stay in the Czech Republic without official permission and seek illegal employment. Last week the Czech Foreign Police published figures concerning illegal migration on Czech territory in 2002. I spoke to Miloslav Smetana from the Foreign Nationals' Department of the Czech Foreign Police.

"The number of foreign migrants coming to the Czech Republic has been changing over the past few years. Looking back at 1994, the greatest number of illegal migrants were coming from the former Yugoslavia, overtime the trend changed and they stopped coming. Towards the end of the 1990s we witnessed an increase in the number of illegal migrants from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam and in 2002 there was a significant increase in the number of illegal migrants from China."

The head of the Czech Foreign Police, Jindrich Urban, explains more.

"2301 Chinese citizens were detained on Czech borders in 2002. A large part of them were captured on the Czech-Slovak border. If we detain them there we return them to Slovakia in accordance with mutual readmission agreements. If we arrest them inside the country and cannot prove they crossed that border, we either expel them or place them in detention camps for illegal migrants. And if they cross the borders to Austria or Germany, the foreign police in those countries return them to the Czech Republic according to readmission agreements."

In 2002, 12,700 people were expelled from the Czech Republic and their plane tickets cost the Czech Republic over 10 million crowns. Although the number of illegal migrants entering the Czech Republic is high, it has been decreasing significantly since recently according to Jindrich Urban.

"Illegal migration has been falling since 2000. In 2001 it dropped by 35 percent and in 2002 by 40 percent. The reasons are that the situation has improved - a) there is a new unit within the foreign and border police, b) the anti-organised crime unit works very well - in 2001 and 2002 they arrested a large group of traffickers and interrupted the flow of illegal migrants from Afghanistan. Furthermore, there is the new asylum law. It is now stricter, which means fewer people can abuse the asylum law and use political asylum in order to move further. And last but not least, the situation in our neighbouring countries has improved and the Polish and Slovak foreign police work very well."

Among the foreign citizens who come to the Czech Republic, there are also refugees who face prosecution or death at home. However, not many people apply for political asylum in the Czech Republic - and the number is even decreasing. In December 2002, 680 people applied for asylum, that is 50 percent less than in December of the previous year. Miloslav Smetana again.

"Those who have been granted asylum can apply for Czech citizenship after they spend five years in the country. The number of asylum seekers and people granted asylum is not even in the hundredsm, it is quite low. So therefore the number of people who receive Czech citizenship after being granted asylum is low."

Another problem the Foreign Police has to deal with is people who work illegally in the Czech Republic. Miloslav Smetana explains.

"If I were to give one example, I would mention above all the citizens of Ukraine. As far as we know, many Ukrainians come to this country to seek employment but never apply for a residence permit and seek illegal employment."

Although most migrants only cross the Czech Republic and try to move westward to European Union countries, for some the Czech Republic is a target country.

"For certain groups of foreigners the Czech Republic has become a target country. They usually come from East European countries. The Czech Republic is a good place for employment and after they have spent several years and become used to living here, they apply for Czech citizenship."

Protest against bad living conditions - detention centre Kostelec nad Ohri, photo: CTK

There are four detention centres for illegal migrants in the Czech Republic. Their overall capacity is 719 people. There have been several cases when the inhabitants of those centres have protested against what they called "bad living conditions" there. The reasons they gave were lengthy asylum procedures, a desire to move to a different centre or, on the contrary, not wanting to move anywhere, or complaints about living conditions in the centres, including food or heating. Milan Kocik from the Prague branch of the Foreign and Border Police explains that sometimes it is not easy to satisfy everyone.

"We are trying to meet everyone's requirements, for example as far as diet is concerned. But with up to seven different nationalities at the facility it is difficult to satisfy everyone's wishes as to what they want for breakfast or dinner. We are trying to comply with everyone's needs."

Milan Kocik says, however, that conditions could improve if the financial resources were bigger.

"Like everywhere else, we have financial limits which we have to respect. If we have limits on food and equipment, we cannot fulfil any special needs if we don't have the money. It is important to say that no one is going hungry, no one is tortured and as to cultural events, we are trying to improve the situation and make the people happy. I think it is good for us to because the more satisfied they are, the easier the cooperation. In some cases the relationship between the police and the detained migrants is very good, sometimes they become almost like mates."

Finally I asked Foreign Police director Jindrich Urban how the responsibilities of the Foreign Police would change after EU accession.

"After EU accession nothing will change. Our officers will stay at the border crossings and check people coming in and out of the country and guard the open border. What will change is that there will be no customs clearance. All customs officers will leave all Czech borders upon EU accession because our non-EU neighbours, Poland and Slovakia, will enter the Union together with the Czech Republic. So there will be no customs officers, but border foreign police are staying and their duties stay the same. But as of January 1, 2007, we will join the Schengen Information System and our borders will become the inner borders of the EU. That means we will stop guarding the borders and checking people and we will move on to other responsibilities."