The Interior Ministry is planning to close down some of the local
centres for foreign asylum seekers whose number has been declining, the
daily Pravo wrote on Monday. According to an Interior Ministry
spokeswoman, the number of applicants has dropped by half since the
Czech Republic's EU entry, and the capacity of refugees' homes now
exceeds the demand. She added that the final decision as to which
asylum centres will be closed down will be made in several weeks.
Almost 5,500 foreigners applied for asylum in the Czech Republic last
year, the lowest number since 1999 and 52 percent fewer than in the
previous year. Ukrainians and Russians prevailed among the asylum
seekers. Over 77,000 people applied for asylum in the Czech Republic in
the past 14 years, and it was granted to 2,500 of them.