We are happy to inform you that we attended a seminar in Prague held by a Czech organization called OPU which helps refugees and foreigners coming here. The seminar consisted of three parts: migration, refugee situation and hate crime.

In the first part, we were provided with some basic information about the international organization UNHCR which deals refugees on regular basis.

We were presented the difference between a migrant and a refugee which seems to be something that people in the Czech Republic can’t get their heads around. The statistics presented were quite surprising. The number of accepted refugees is much smaller than the public think it is and when compared with other European states the number is negligible. We were also shown the process that an asylum seeker must go through.

The second part dealt with the work of Ministry of the Interior which takes care of many responsibilities concerning the question of refugees and migration in general. It answered how many people they work with, what they have to do and how their working day looks.

We found the seminar very educational and interesting. We were quite surprised how many volunteers help refugees with their Czech and inclusion in general. The next they we went home having gained a deeper insight into the whole situation.

The third part, which we students found the most interesting, was concerned with the topic of hate crime. A lawyer and a social worker working for a non-profit organization In Justitia told us how such organization works, what hate crime is, how many there have been in past years, and what were the reasons for committing them. In addition, we were also provided with the information concerning how the organization works with people who happened to be victims of such crimes and how complex the help they need is. The problem we encountered was that in most cases a hate crime is not taken into consideration when a criminal is sued.