CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

VĚRA HONUSKOVÁ CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ Compared to other western European countries, the Czech Republic welcomed a rather small number of people fleeing the Balkan wars. The wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s displaced over 3 million people within and outside its territory, 26 out of which hundreds of thousands crossed the borders of their states and sought protection in other countries. The sudden mass influx resulted in the introduction of temporary protection schemes in many European countries. 27 The Czech Republic, too, introduced such a scheme with the title “temporary refuge”. Around 6,000 people were granted protection under this scheme between 1991 and 1996. 28 The temporary refuge was not the only help that the Czech Government presented. The Czech help was diverse, aimed not only at rendering protection in the territory of the CR, but also at helping those who stayed back home. The first type of help can be represented not only by the temporary refuge program, but also by the evacuation of children and mothers with children as the most vulnerable ones from the war zones. The latter by material help provided in cooperation with coordination centres in the former Yugoslavia and by different entities in the Czech Republic (e.g. NGOs, municipalities, citizens) who donated and coordinated such help. 29 The government at first: (a) offered a temporary refuge was to those who came to the territory of the Czech state; then (b) a few months later the help to children was approved; and (c) a few months later the material help to people trapped in the situation of armed conflict in the territory of the former Yugoslavia was accepted. The basis for all these responses was adopted during one year. b. The legal basis of, and conditions for, temporary refuge Temporary refuge was approached as a different legal scheme than the one which a newly adopted refugee act offered to refugees.The legal basis for the temporary refuge was formulated in Government Resolutions issued between 1991 and 1996. The first resolutions established the scheme; then the protection was prolonged every year and occasionally adjusted to new circumstances. The beneficiaries were at first defined as citizens of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Later, when the war spread to other parts of the former Yugoslavia but calmed down in others, the scope was made narrower, namely only citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina could become beneficiaries of the programme. 30 Refugees (1991) and Council for Refugees established under the umbrella of the Czech Helsinki Committee (1992). 26 See figures inRefugees, vol. 3,No. 140, 2005, online at http://www.unhcr.org/publications/refugeemag/433bded34/ refugees-magazine-issue-140-balkans-war.html [accessed 15 May 2018]. 27 See Humanitarian Issues Working Group, Survey on the Implementation of Temporary Protection , 8 March 1995, online at http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3300.html [accessed 22 May 2018]. 28 See PILÁTWHALEN, p. 3, who mentions 5,676 cases; see also the figures presented in the Humanitarian Issues Working Group, Survey on the Implementation of Temporary Protection, entry “Czech Republic” mentions 6,730 cases. 29 See Annex I to the Government Resolution No. 589 from 14 October 1992 on measures taken to help victims of armed conflict in former Yugoslavia, point II/1-3. 30 After 1 July of 1993 the citizens of Slovenia and Croatia were excluded, after 1 January 1994 the scope was restricted only to citizens of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. See Government Resolution No. 359 from 30 June 1993, on extension of provision of temporary refuge on the territory of the Czech Republic to 31 December 1993 and on restriction of the scope of beneficiaries; see Government Resolution No. 723 from 22 December 1993, on extension of provision of temporary refuge to the citizens of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the territory of the Czech Republic and on restriction of the scope of beneficiaries.

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