Prague City Hall is reopening the regional centre for refugees from Ukraine in Vysočany on Monday, which it closed in mid-June due to the large number of refugees in the capital.
Prague will no longer offer refugees more permanent housing in its own facilities. According to Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Piráti), the reopening is based on a government decision that he described as wrong.
According to earlier information, the centre at Vysočanská metro station will be open from Monday to Thursday between 08:00 and 15:00 and on Fridays from 08:00 to 14:00.
As before the closure, it will assist refugees with arranging residence permits, health insurance, and other tasks. However, due to full capacity, the city will no longer offer accommodation to Ukrainians, with the exception of temporary tent cities and capacities provided by the Administration of Refugee Facilities.
The decision to reopen was made by the city’s crisis staff in late June, according to Hřib, based on a government order. The mayor described the decision as wrong and said the state should have first sorted out the system of relocating refugees from overloaded Prague.
According to Interior Ministry data, some 377 000 refugees have been granted residence permits since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than four months ago, 89 000 of them in the capital.