BBC News | World | Czech gypsies warned off

BBC News Online: World

Thursday, November 27, 1997 Published at 16:21 GMT

Czech gypsies warned off

Czech gypsies warned off
The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, has asked the Czech Government to stop gypsies from arriving in Britain.

In a meeting with President Havel near Prague, Mr Cook said that Britain would not be a "soft touch" for gypsies arriving in Britain, hoping to live on state benefit payments.

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After his 45 minute meeting with the Czech President, Vaclav Havel, Mr Cook emerged to say "Britain does not have an open door policy for those who claim asylum and who can not then prove it."

He also said that Britain had no active plans to restore visa requirements for travellers from the Czech republic, and urged the Czech authorities to tackle internal problems which have left the gypsies as unrecognised citizens in their own land.

The gypsies have been coming to Britain since a television programme broadcast in the Czech republic claimed they would get more in social security benefits in a week in Britain than they would in a month at home.

Many of the gypsies have been sent home. Others remain in detention whilst their applications for asylum are checked. The Czech government has agreed to provide one million crowns for repatriating them.

The gypsies claim they are discriminated against at home, and unemployment in their communities is much higher than the Czech average.

Vaclav Havel has since appealed to Czechs to be more sympathetic to "latent racism" in his country, and the plight of gypsies.

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