Prague has opened another center to help refugees. He will help them with housing, and later with schools — ČT24 — Czech Television
CNPUU was created so far with the intention that it will last until the end of March next year. According to Prague mayor Zdenek Hřiba (Pirates), how and whether it will continue to operate after that will depend on several circumstances, including when the state will take over the operation of the neighboring Regional Assistance Center for Ukraine (KACPU).
“Although all the government documents are valid until the end of March, it is certain that it will be moved, but at the moment we do not have a new date because we could be working,” he said. The city is negotiating with the owner of the building, the Central Group company, to extend the lease of the house.
While the assistance center helps refugees who come to the Czech Republic, mainly with registration with the foreign police and obtaining temporary protection, the follow-up assistance center should help them with further steps, which they tend to have difficulties with at the authorities.
“The goal is to spend a longer time with the client, roughly 15 to 30 minutes, when the client really has the space to explain their entire situation, because there is usually no time at the offices they go to. They will tell how their situation is in the Czech Republic,” said the center’s coordinator Michaela Márová. After the interview, the next procedure is outlined.
The creation of the CNPUU was acknowledged by the Ukrainian chargé d’affaires Vitaly Usaty and the head of the UNICEF office for solving the refugee situation in the Czech Republic, Julia Olejnyková. “Ukrainians know very well that Prague is their reliable ally from the first day of the large-scale invasion of the Russian army. The Czech metropolis received more than a hundred thousand of our citizens who were forced to leave their homes by Russian aggression. A symbol of Ukraine’s gratitude is, among other things, the granting of the city-saving title to Prague by President Volodymyr Zelensky,” Usatyj said.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, almost a hundred thousand people have come to Prague, including more than 30 thousand children. According to Hřiba, about 113,000 people have already completed the KACPU. Some of them did not stay in Prague and went to other regions or, for example, to Germany. KACPU no longer offers housing in city apartments and dormitories due to its full capacity.