CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SOLIDARITY WITH REFUGEES … Union, which means that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and all primary and secondary legislation related to asylum and refugee issues are relevant and applicable. The Czech Republic is a landlocked state not facing the need of securing the borderline at sea. At the same time, it is surrounded by states that are part of the Schengen area and therefore has no need to secure its borders as such. The Czech Republic is situated inside of the EU and therefore, as a result of the Dublin regulation, 9 it is a state with only a small number of people who seek protection compared to the EU Border States such as Italy or Greece. The situation was different thirty years ago. The Czech Republic changed its political orientation in 1989. Its borders were closed under the previous communist regime, which resulted into a more or less homogenous society. The borders opened at the beginning of the 1990s and the Czech Republic became a new home for many migrants and refugees. 10 They were coming mostly from the former Soviet Union states and they did not visually differ from the majority. The illusion of homogeneity therefore lasts in a public opinion until now. The recent political debate has been influenced by the still-lasting iron curtain in the society’s interpretation of reality. The disinformation campaigns, rather extensive in 2015 when a large number of people entered the EU, have been targeting the Czech Republic for years and have accelerated the negative impression of the reality. 11 The Czech Republic became famous for its “NO” to quotas on relocation. 12 Less known are the facts that there have been successful resettlement programs, that there are refugees granted protection on the basis of a regular procedure and many of them have become citizens since the early 1990s. Less known are the number of NGOs and of volunteers helping refugees inside the country and abroad, many of them helping in refugee camps on the Balkan route since 2015. Also less known is the fact that there were times when solidarity mattered in the Czech Republic. Although it is hard to imagine it today. 9 Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person. 10 Migrants form 5% of the population, the number of refugees is low compared to other European countries (only hundreds of refugee statuses and subsidiary protections per year). For more figures see the website of the Czech Statistical Office, online at https://www.czso.cz/csu/cizinci/cizinci-pocet-cizincu [accessed 10 April 2018] and of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic, online at http://www.mvcr.cz/migrace/web-statistiky.aspx [accessed 10 April 2018]. 11 For more information about the online disinformation see Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Tackling online disinformation: a European Approach, COM(2018) 236 final, 26 April 2018. 12 See the case C-719/17 (Court of Justice of the European Union), action brought on 22 December 2017 by the European Commission against the Czech Republic for failing to fulfil their obligations under the Council Relocation Decisions (Council Decision (EU) 2015/1523 and Council Decision (EU) 2015/1601), the case is still pending). For the context see the press release of the European Commission from 7 December 2017: Relocation: Commission refers the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to the Court of Justice, online at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-5002_en.htm [accessed 19 June 2018]. For more information about the facts and legal background see also WITTE, B., TSOURDI, E. Confrontation on relocation – The Court of Justice endorses the emergency scheme for compulsory relocation of asylum seekers within the European Union: Slovak Republic and Hungary v. Council . CLMR 55: 1457-1494, 2018.

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