Czech Interior Minister met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Ukrainian Police to investigate allegedly "organized dispatches" of Roma refugees from Ukraine

Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (Mayors and Independents – STAN) announced yesterday that he discussed investigating Romani refugees and war crimes with Denys Monastyrsky, his counterpart in Ukraine; in a press release, the Czech Interior Ministry said it requested an examination of whether people from the Transcarpathian Region are being dispatched in an organized way to take advantage of benefits to which they could become entitled in the EU. According to the press release, the main subject of the interview was the current problems related to the wave of migration from Ukraine into the Czech Republic. 

The ministers reportedly mainly discussed the Romani refugees from the Transcarpathian Region who hold Hungarian passports, EU citizens to whom the Czech Republic is denying temporary protection, unlike citizens of Ukraine without a second passport. “I asked the Ukrainian minister whether the Ukrainian Police could pay attention to the suspected organized crime in the Transcarpathian Region, from where people are perhaps being dispatched in an organized way to cross the border into the EU to take advantage of benefits to which they otherwise have no right,” Rakušan said. 

The press release claims Monastyrsky took the Czech alert very seriously and that the Ukrainian Police will deal with it despite the ongoing conflict. The ministers also talked about investigating war crimes using international teams of detectives. 

Czech Police officers reportedly should participate in such efforts. The Czech Republic reportedly also promised aid with the rebuilding of Ukraine and wants to support, for example, activities leading to the demining of Ukrainian territory.