Interior minister: Czechia currently hosting around 200,000 refugees

According to estimates from the country’s 14 regions, there are currently around 200 000 refugees from Ukraine in the Czech Republic, Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan told on Czech Television. Although the Czech authorities have issued over 340,000 humanitarian visas, roughly 140 000 people are believed to have left the country mostly for Western Europe. The Czech Republic lacks an accurate overview because they are moving within the Schengen area, Rakušan said.

The minister also responded to the problematic situation concerning several hundred Roma refugees, who have not yet received visas since in is not clear if they have dual Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship in which case they would not be eligible for humanitarian visas in the Czech Republic. Mr. Rakušan said he had asked Hungary to speed up the vetting process so that the matter could be resolved swiftly. In the meantime, the refugees are being accommodated in a tent city in Prague’s Troja district.