Press: Interior minister to seek more funds for scheme repatriating unemployed foreigners

Outgoing interior minister Ivan Langer is to ask the cabinet for another 90 million crowns (4.43 million USD) to fund a controversial government scheme sending foreign workers who have recently been made redundant home. The scheme, which was launched in February, offers foreigners who have lost their jobs a free plane ticket home and a lump-sum of 500 euros to cover expenses. On Monday, Mr Langer told newspaper Hospodářské noviny that 1,400 of the 2,000 places allocated had already been filled, and that he would ask the cabinet for more money to broaden the scheme on May 4. So far, the voluntary repatriation programme has been especially popular amongst the Czech Republic’s Mongolian minority. Earlier this month, the interior minister said that he would like to widen the scheme to encompass those who have been living and working in the Czech Republic illegally.