Dozens of Chechens from refugee camps in Poland apply for asylum in the Czech Republic(Prague Watchdog) – Several dozen Chechens from refugee camps in Poland today applied for asylum in the Czech Republic because of „adverse conditions in the camps“, the Czech Interior Ministry announced.
According to Polish authorities, the Chechens had given up trying to get refugee status in Poland, and legally crossed the border.
The Czech Interior Ministry sent some of its staff to the Czech-Polish border.
Prague Watchdog is getting more details.
Background:
Chechen refugees began arriving in the Czech Republic in the mid-90s, when the first Chechen war broke out; and today there are a few hundred of them here. Because of the Czech Asylum Act of 1999, they have been unable to receive refugee status as all asylum proceedings for them were “temporarily” suspended.
According to the UN Geneva Conventions, applicants must prove they had been persecuted in their home country, and those failing to do so, were then at a dead-end. So four years ago, in order to avoid rejecting their applications, asylum procedures for Chechen refugees in the Czech Republic were suspended, allowing them to remain in the country. However, this measure was not advantageous for the people who fulfilled all the conditions necessary to receive asylum.
Exactly two years ago, on April 18, 2001, the Czech government issued a resolution acknowledging the proposal of the Czech Council for Human Rights to “grant temporary protection to citizens of the Russian Federation and others who became refugees as a result of the armed conflict in Chechnya and are now in the Czech Republic.” As a result, about 250 Chechens were granted temporary protection. But unlike permanent asylum, this protection could be terminated when the situation in Chechnya improved enough to allow them to return.
(T/E) |
