The refugee wave is falling. But Prague still threatens to close itself off to refugees
While the refugee wave is easing in most regions, according to Mayor Zdeněk Hřiby (Pirates), the situation in Prague is still bad.
He claims that the capital is on the verge of capacity and its management is still considering the complete closure of the Regional Assistance Center for Ukraine (KACPU) in Vysočany.
Mushroom expects a solution from Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS). “Compared to another region, Prague has up to four times more refugees on its territory. I have been saying for a long time that the situation must be dealt with directly by the Prime Minister, “the mayor told the News List.
Prague and the Central Bohemian Region have registered over 90,000 refugees since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is not clear how many of them remain directly in the capital.
The mayor continues to call for a relocation mechanism. “In addition, it is necessary to reach an agreement between the government and the cities and municipalities where the refugees will go. We are now waiting for new information from the government. I believe that they will be presented on Tuesday at a joint meeting with the governors, “he added.
The next steps should be clear after Wednesday’s meeting of the capital’s crisis staff. “If the situation remains unresolved, Prague will be forced to close its regional center completely. From my point of view, it does not make sense to admit other people to already specified locations, “continued Hřib, who had previously announced that the Vysočina center would close without a clear solution.
Central Station
In Vysočany, they now handle about three hundred Ukrainians a day, with the highest occupancy rate being up to 3,700 refugees a day.
The specific situation remains at Prague’s main railway station. According to the spokeswoman for the initiative, Hlavák Mlady Hošková, almost 250 refugees, mostly Ukrainian Roma, slept there on Monday night.
Volunteer organizations, which now provide basic food and other humanitarian assistance to refugees, will officially end there on Tuesday. The situation will continue to be monitored by the foreign police and fire brigade. “For our application now about the situation and we are trying to figure out what to do next. People cannot leave people there without humanitarian aid. We will probably continue to help without official protection, “she outlined the next step.
Mayor Hřib pointed out that the current situation is unsustainable and staff capacity is exhausted. “The place will return to its original meaning, ie to inform refugees about the possibilities of help. The number of people sleeping on the spot is gradually decreasing thanks to the work of mixed patrols made up of representatives and members of the foreign police, “he specified.
According to Hošková, the number of refugees at the station has decreased slightly and some of them are returning to Ukraine or Hungary, but the situation will not improve significantly. “I don’t know if the rest have any prospects. I don’t see much of a shift. And the motivation of the people who left is not entirely happy, “added the spokeswoman for the initiative.
A tent town in Troja has already been established for 150 refugees. Firefighters in Malešice started building the same type of accommodation with the same capacity on Monday. “It will include facilities, including a dining tent and showers,” said firefighter spokesman Martin Kavka.
In Prague and Central Bohemia, however, it declined significantly. Thanks to this, it was able to completely close the center in Příbram and Mladá Boleslav during May. In the region, in addition to Prague’s Vysočany, refugees are only handled in Kutná Hora.
From Výstaviště to Komárov
The so-called KACPU dampens traffic elsewhere in the country. For example, in Brno in March, up to several hundred refugees arrived at the local Exhibition Grounds every night, and thousands of them came to the city every day. Ukrainians had to crowd on the gallery of Pavilion B.
After three months, the situation is completely different. The onslaught has weakened, the premises of Pavilion B are unnecessarily large. From Wednesday, June 1, he will move to Komárov in Brno to help refugees. The refugees will head to the building of the Research Institute of Building Materials in Hněvkovského Street. The two floors will have over 1400 square meters.
In addition to registration, the refugees will also arrange visas for the foreigner police or the necessary requisites with the employment office or the health insurance company. Overnight stays will be possible for only thirty people, and there will also be fewer police officers and volunteers in the new center.
More than 40,000 refugees have registered in South Moravia since the beginning of the war. While in the first days of the crisis, 1,700 people went to the Brno Exhibition Grounds every day, now they are on average two hundred. “Fewer people are coming and there is no need for as much capacity as at the fairgrounds. Operation at Hněvkovského is cheaper and the Brno Exhibition Center also needs to use the pavilion, ”explained Jan Grolich (KDU-ČSL), Governor of the South Moravian Region.
The operation at the Exhibition Grounds cost over ten million crowns. The governor is now waiting to see how much the government will reimburse him.
End of weekend operation
As of this week, the assistance center in Hradec Králové is only open on weekdays. In the last week, less than three hundred refugees registered there, in mid-March it was 3,900 people a week. Interest in accommodation has also dropped significantly, with 22 refugees recruited through the fire brigade in recent weeks.
The weekend operation of the center was also canceled in Ústí nad Labem. More than 15,000 Ukrainians have helped there since the beginning of the war. The governor’s office has so far been agreed with volunteer firefighters or interpreters in cooperation by the end of June. It will be decided according to the development of the situation. “More people are already returning to Ukraine, but we do not know exactly,” said the governor of the Ústí nad Labem region, Jan Schiller (YES).
Currently, about a hundred people pass through the center of Ostrava every day, at the beginning of the crisis there were three to four times more of them. They also adjusted the volunteer numbers accordingly. “We are not preparing for relocation or changes in functioning,” Nikola Birklenová, a spokeswoman for the Moravian-Silesian Region, responded to the question.
In Ostrava, the situation at the main railway station also calmed down. “For example, there are groups of ten refugees waiting here for the next connection. According to our information, these are mainly refugees who have been found to have dual citizenship and therefore are not entitled to any assistance, “the spokeswoman added. According to her, however, the governor’s office has not reported serious problems, so there is no need to intervene.
With the declining wave of refugees, other places are restricting traffic. For example, the Vesna association has been running the Humanitarian Aid Center in the courtyard of Pražák’s Palace in Brno for thirteen weeks. Refugees go there for clothes, toiletries or a drugstore. From June, they will only get there upon prior reservation.