BBC News Online: World: Europe

Czechs bow to UK asylum controls

Czechs faced paying more than $50 for a UK visa

The move is part of an effort to prevent bogus asylum seekers from reaching Britain, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman said in a televised speech on Wednesday.

British immigration controls at the airport were suspended on 9 August - less than a month after they were introduced - after criticism that the checks discriminated against the country's population of Roma, or gypsies.

But the authorities decided to reintroduce the checks after the United Kingdom threatened to impose visa requirements on all Czech visitors.

Mr Zeman rejected claims that the British controls were racist, and said the government's decision was the "lesser of two evils".

Roma, he said, would be no more able to travel under a visa regime than they had been with airport checks in place.

"But along with them, a large proportion of the Czech population will also be banned from travelling there, and the rest of them will be subjected to this, in my view, unnecessary procedure.

Claims cut

All of the 1,200 or so asylum claims filed in Britain by Czechs so far this year have been rejected, according to the British embassy in Prague.

The airport controls had slashed that number to a fraction, British officials said.

Suspending the checks had resulted in the number of Czech asylum claims soaring once more.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kavan is scheduled to meet representatives of the British embassy on Thursday to discuss the renewal of the controls.