Czech Republic

Czech volunteer firefighters tell Romani children club is full - then accept a different applicant

16.9.2015 20:14 The Plzeňský deník daily reported on 11 September that the Voluntary Firefighter Unit in the Bolevec neighborhood of the Czech town of Plzeň recently refused to accept applications from four Romani children to join their club. Allegedly there was no more room for new members.  full story

Czech NGO found barefoot, hungry children in detention center for asylum-seekers who are being charged money by authorities

16.9.2015 18:03 Czech NGOs report that the conditions in Czech facilities for asylum-seekers are substandard. The situation in detention facilities is especially bad, where asylum-seekers complain that their mobile telephones and money are being confiscated.
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Czech NGOs question whether mandatory preschool is an effective way to help socially disadvantaged children

16.9.2015 4:39 A proposed amendment to the Schools Act that would make the final year of preschool mandatory in the Czech Republic as of 2017 is not being unequivocally accepted by all experts on education. Those opposed include, for example, the Association of Forest Nursery Schools (Asociace lesních mateřských škol).  full story

Czech pizzeria has the answer: It won't serve immigrants and wants to "Stop Islam"

16.9.2015 2:50 The Grand Italia Ristorante Pizzeria in the Czech town of Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou posted the slogans "We don't serve immigrants" and "Stop Islam" to its Facebook profile at the start of September. After members of the public responded to his messaging, restaurant manager Tomáš Ševčík then posted the following: "Yesterday I was called a Nazi because I expressed my opinion about the problem with refugees - we got 200 negative reviews, insults and threats. When I looked at the profiles of those posting I couldn't believe it. They either work for a 'nonprofit' or are foreigners and don't understand at all what is going on - this is just a gimmick so we'll be afraid of them. I don't mind foreigners, what I mind is this invasion OF ILLEGAL REFUGEES WHO BELIEVE THEY ARE ENTITLED TO ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING."  full story

Pro-refugee demos throughout Europe, Czech Police detain Romani activist again over flag

14.9.2015 0:41 Czech Police detained Romani activist Ivana Mariposa Čonková in Prague yesterday immediately prior to the beginning of a demonstration there for an "Open Europe", one of several such events held throughout the continent. Although the officers did not initially inform her why she was being detained, it later turned out that it was because she was holding a Czech flag altered to feature elements of the international Romani flag.  full story

Czech platform for institutionalized children calls on Gov't to simplify its child welfare system

13.9.2015 1:05 Vteřina poté ("One Second Later"), an independent platform in the Czech Republic advocating for the rights of institutionalized children, has sent an open letter to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Michaela Marksová, Czech Education Minister Kateřina Valachová, Czech Health Minister Svatopluk Němeček and Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier calling on them to fulfill the Government's pledge to simplify its care system for at-risk children. The Government made that pledge in its National Strategy for the Protection of the Rights of the Child in 2012.  full story

Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion reports on transitional housing programs now underway

12.9.2015 19:10 The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has released research analyzing so-called transitional housing systems currently being implemented throughout the country in detail. Such systems are being used by more than 10 cities and social service providers for working with people who are unable to access standard housing for various reasons.  full story

Another Czech school segregating Romani children this year

11.9.2015 1:50 On 1 September the parents of some of the first-graders at the Antonín Sochor Primary School in the Czech town of Duchcov found an unpleasant surprise awaited them. The first grade class identified as "1A" includes all of the newly-enrolled Romani children, while class "1B" next door has been reserved exclusively for the children of local non-Roma.  full story

Czech school opens "special" first-grade class, only Roma assigned to it

8.9.2015 19:57 The principal of a primary school in the town of Krásná Lípa in the Šluknov foothills has created a "special" class only for Romani first-graders. Their parents are complaining that they did not know their children would be attending a class that would be separate from the other children.  full story

Czech Human Rights Minister proposes illegally sterilized women receive CZK 300 000 compensation

7.9.2015 17:10 Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier will submit a proposal to the Government this month for women who have been illegally sterilized to receive compensation. The amount he is proposing is CZK 300 000 (EUR 11 000).  full story

Czech right-wing extremist proposes refugees be "concentrated" at Terezín

7.9.2015 15:41 Adam B. Bartoš, chair of the National Democracy (ND) political group, which is not seated in the Czech Parliament, posted yet another remark about refugees to his publicly accessible Facebook profile after midnight today. "Why create camps of tents for the aliens near Břeclav (and elsewhere) to stress and terrorize local residents? After all, we have the beautiful fortress town of Terezín (safer than any little tent city) where the aliens could be concentrated before the trains take them home..." he wrote.  full story

Czech Christian Democrats strip local councilor of party membership over his racist remarks about refugees

6.9.2015 23:58 Daniel Kalenda, a local councilor in the town of Liberec and member of the Czech Christian Democratic Party (KDU-ČSL) who made hateful, pejorative remarks about the refugees who recently perished in a truck in eastern Austria near the Hungarian border, has been stripped of his membership by party leaders. Kalenda posted the following remarks, among others, to social networking sites: "God, 71 dead on a highway in Austria... And should we be crying? They say they ran out of air the minute the doors were closed. What do you expect? You shouldn't be so stupid as to get into a truck like that. The very best thing of all would be for them to stay home. They say the world is crushed [by this news]... I am not mourning them, I'm not sorry for them... Not at all! This element doesn't belong here, they are filth and scum."  full story

Former Czech President Klaus launches new petition against immigration

5.9.2015 20:50 Former Czech President Klaus has initiated a new petition against immigration. The document, which he presented today at a briefing at the exhibition grounds in the town of Lysá nad Labem, calls on the Czech Government to ensure national security and the external inviolability of the state's borders by any means necessary, including deployment of the Army and Police.  full story

Czech counter-intelligence says number of anti-Romani events fell in 2014, extremists agitating against Islam instead

4.9.2015 22:23 Last year right-wing extremists in the Czech Republic focused on anti-Islamic themes instead of on anti-Romani invective. The radical scene there continues to be fragmented.  full story

Czech Police stop marking refugees' arms after critics call it reminiscent of the Holocaust

3.9.2015 20:07 The Czech Aliens Police has been using markers to write identification numbers on the arms of refugees detained in Břeclav in a way that critics say recalls practices used during the Holocaust. "The published footage does not represent the standard procedure of the Czech Police, this procedure occurred due to the time pressure under which the police were at that moment, primarily because they did not want children to become separated from their parents in such a large group," the Czech Interior Ministry explained today.  full story

Amnesty International petition against discrimination of Roma in Czech schools signed by 38 000

2.9.2015 16:40 A petition against the discrimination of Romani children in the Czech schools was signed by 38 334 people from 94 countries between April and August of this year. Amnesty International closed its online campaign yesterday by organizing a "happening" outside the Czech Education Ministry.  full story

Czech town's "zero tolerance" policy generates police abuse

1.9.2015 1:12 A reporter for news server Romea.cz is mapping the current situation at the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov. The estate is an excluded locality that experienced one of the first big anti-Romani actions organized in the Czech Republic by right-wing extremists seven years ago.  full story

Commentary: Czech media mock UN recommendations on racism and Roma

31.8.2015 1:24 The UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued its reports on the situation in several countries from around the world last week. The otherwise serious news server Aktuálně.cz reported the news with the headline "UN: Czechs should stop Romani ghettos, the Dutch should stop Black Pete", and I think that by so doing they quite knowingly indicated to the reader that all of the Committee's recommendations are to be seen as absurd.  full story

Czech Constitutional Court says verdict in housing discrimination lawsuit must be reviewed

29.8.2015 2:30 The Czech Constitutional Court instructed the High Court in Prague on 14 August to review a lawsuit filed by a Romani couple against the town of Kladno and the Czech state over alleged discrimination in the allocation of housing. Originally the Regional Court in Prague awarded the plaintiffs an apology and CZK 40 000 (EUR 1500 ) from Kladno, especially because the property owner had never addressed the poor state of the couple's apartment.  full story

Czech gathering commemorates 72 years since Roma prisoners transported from Hodonín to Auschwitz

29.8.2015 0:18 On Sunday, 23 August 2015, people gathered in Hodonín by Kunštát to commemorate 72 years since Romani inmates were transported from the concentration camp there to the death camp at Auschwitz. On that day 72 years ago the Nazis sent the largest transport of Romani prisoners from the so-called "Gypsy camp" to Auschwitz.  full story