Czech Ministry Proposes Re-Patriation of Unemployed Foreigners

Prague - The Czech Interior Ministry has drafted a plan enabling the state to send the foreigners, who lost their job in the Czech Republic and have no money, back to their homeland, says weekly Tyden in its issue to appear on Monday, adding that the state would pay 500 euros for voluntary return.

The proposal reckons with the state giving the air tickets to the foreigners concerned. Those who would opt for return voluntarily, could gain an additional 500 euros, Tyden writes. The ministry expects 12,000 foreign employees to be made redundant in the Czech Republic by March-end. If the state did nothing, the threat would arise that up to 15 percent of the unemployed foreigners would be absorbed by the underworld, up to 80 percent of them would try to circumvent the law and create an illegal labour market, and up to 15 percent would move to other EU states, Tyden writes, citing the ministry.

The first to have been afflicted by the financial crisis are mainly the Vietnamese and Mongolian workers in the Czech Republic.

"It is really a big problem, which also poses a threat to state security," said Tomas Haisman, head of the ministry's department of asylum and migration section. The ministry's proposal, reckoning with the departure of about 2,000 foreigners from the Czech Republic, requires approval from the government. If it receives the green light, the government would also earmark over 55 million crowns for the voluntary returns.

At the same time the Interior Ministry proposes a temporary restriction of issuing long-term visas. It also wants to check the agencies that mediate jobs for foreigners, and to make the agencies cooperate with state authorities.

"They have to bear responsibility for the people whom they bring to our country," Haisman is quoted as saying.

The number of foreign workers in the Czech Republic grew by 44,300 last year, a 20 percent decrease against 2007. As of end-December 2008, a total of 284,551 foreigners were legally employed in the Czech Republic.

Author: ČTK