Off the wire
• Food production to remain stable in 2016: UN food agency  • F1 back to use 2015 qualifying format from China GP  • 1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks retreat after Fed minutes  • Nigeria drops in latest FIFA ranking  • Nigeria FA vow to ensure qualifications for 2018 World Cup  • Dutch minister survives no confidence vote after terrorism debate  • Record number of countries expected to sign historic Paris climate accord  • U.S. commander in Africa says IS doubles presence in Libya  • Roundup: Cyprus says it will not need new bailout to fund reunification agreement  • Power, infrastructure, agriculture high on agenda of Buhari's China visit  
You are here: 　 Home

Czech Republic ends project of resettling Christian Iraqi refugees

Xinhua, April 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Czech Republic will end the project of resettling Christian refugees from Iraq as the government has agreed its termination, Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec on Thursday said on his Twitter account.

The abolition of the project was proposed by Chovanec due to the fact that more than two dozens Iraqis have left Czech for Germany and other eight returned to their homeland.

Chovanec said that the government met his proposal and cancelled the project of resettlement of Christian Iraqis to the Czech Republic, without any replacement. It is not possible to support the project that has failed to meet its purpose.

According to the resettling project, the Czech Republic were to accept 153 Christian refugees from Iraq, 130 of them came from Iraqi Kurdistan and 23 were Iraqi refugees from Lebanon.

So far, 89 Iraqi refugees arrived in Czech within the project. Of the 89 Iraqis, 25 went to Germany and other eight were back to their homeland. The remaining 56 people are in Prague, Brno and Sobesovice near Frydek-Mistek region.

Jan Talafant, who is the director of the organizer of the project, said that they respected the decision of the government, and they will continue to take care of those Iraqis who were already in the country.

According to Talafant, most of the 25 Iraqis who have left Czech for Germany were not voluntarily, they were forced to leave by "someone from outside" and persuaded by two of them. Talafant said if these refugees applied for Czech asylum again, they would probably help some of them.

Chovanec suspended the resettlement project after a group of Iraqis withdrew their application for asylum in Czech and went to Germany after a several-week stay. Both Chovanec and Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said that the Czech Republic cannot serve as a travel agency bringing these refugees closer to West Europe and their countries of destination, such as Germany. Sobotka said he would like to examine the refugees' motivation for living in the Czech Republic. Enditem