In the Czech Republic, Ukrainians began to be denied temporary protection en masse

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic automatically refuses to grant temporary protection to those Ukrainian refugees who previously received it in another EU country, but then decided to move to the republic. This is reported by local media.

It is reported that the agency is guided by a clause in the national law Lex Ukrajina, according to which an application for temporary protection from a person who previously received it in another country cannot be accepted for consideration. At the same time, this paragraph goes against European law, as indicated in April by the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic, which ruled that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is obliged to consider all such statements on their merits. Then it was noted that automatic refusal is a violation of the law EU: according to the agreements of all EU member states, Ukrainian refugees have the right to move to another country and get a temporary protection visa there if they refuse it in the first country beforehand.

"The Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot reject applications from Ukrainian citizens entitled to temporary protection on the territory of the European Union on the grounds that they have already received this protection in another member state," said the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic, which specifically appealed to the EU Court for clarification.

In turn, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic continues to stand on its own and has prepared an insurance amendment to the current legislation in order to avoid possible lawsuits. At the same time, it will not affect those Ukrainians who for the first time receive temporary protection in the Czech Republic.

"I understand it so that first of all we should help people who come from a country that has been attacked, and not those who have already received basic assistance," said DEPUTY Petr Letokha, who made a proposal to change the law.

The initiative to introduce the amendment came from the Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic, Vit Rakushan.

"To simplify it very much, we, despite the opinion of the court, adhere to the position that we do not provide secondary temporary protection. The Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament is a sovereign that has made a certain decision," he told members of the parliamentary security committee at the end of May.

According to Rakushan, his ministry has prepared an amendment to the LexUkrajina law in order to "avoid problems with the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court." Its essence is as follows: if there is a threat of exhaustion of opportunities for the reception of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will send a corresponding notification to the European Commission and ask the European Union to ensure a balance in the distribution of refugees. After sending such a letter, the Czech Republic will not be obliged to accept Ukrainians who previously had or now have temporary protection provided by another EU member state.

"The Czech Republic has long been ranked first in the European Union in terms of the number of holders of temporary protection per capita," the explanatory note to the proposal says.

Recall, according to the latest data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 397750 people with a temporary protection visa live in the republic today. This amounts to 36.49 refugees for every thousand inhabitants of the country. Poland is in second place in this indicator (27.16), followed by Austria (24.47) and Germany (14.11). The Czech Interior Ministry believes that it is impossible to aggravate this imbalance by allowing the influx of Ukrainian refugees from other EU countries to the Czech Republic. The Ministry believes that the conflict in Ukraine remains unstable, and the Czech Republic needs to maintain reserves in case of a possible increase in the number of new arrivals.