Deportations from Czechia: 4,691 orders, only 56 enforced

Last year, the Foreign Police issued administrative expulsion decisions against 4,691 foreigners. In the same year, 2,862 people with such a decision left the country, of whom only 56 were forcibly returned. This is shown by data the police provided to Novinky.

The two figures cannot be compared directly: those who left may include people whose expulsion was ordered in previous years. Moreover, most of the recorded departures were voluntary, either independent or assisted.

Most often for illegal stay

The most common reason for administrative expulsion is not crime but a breach of residence rules: living without a valid permit, lacking travel documents or working illegally.

But an issued decision does not always mean the person will leave. “For some foreigners with an administrative expulsion decision, enforcement is impossible because of obstacles to departure,” Foreign Police spokesman Josef Urban told Novinky. An obstacle may be, for example, the security situation in the country of origin, which makes it impossible for the foreigner to return.

Expulsion also for less serious crimes

Besides administrative expulsion, there is expulsion as a punishment imposed by courts for a committed crime, if the safety of people or property or another public interest requires it. “Expulsion is not ruled out even for less serious crimes if they are committed repeatedly,” said Marcela Nevšímalová of the Ministry of Justice.

The court must assess the gravity of the act, the offender’s situation and the possibility of rehabilitation. There are also legal obstacles: if the court finds one of the so-called negative conditions, it cannot impose the punishment, whatever crime the offender has committed. Such an obstacle may be, for example, the threat of torture or persecution in the country of origin.

Two recent cases also show different outcomes. Two foreign women who filmed a robbery of a 78-year-old pensioner in Prague received, in addition to a suspended sentence, a three-year expulsion. By contrast, the state has so far been unable to strip a Lebanese man, whom Czech security forces consider dangerous, of his right to stay. According to Seznam Zprávy, the man had family ties to radical Islamists, was interested in weapons and repeatedly attacked his partner. However, he was not convicted of any crime in Czechia.

The Ministry of the Interior denied him further residence, but the Liberec branch of the regional court overturned the decision: in the court’s view, the evidence presented was not sufficient to conclude that the man threatens state security. The ministry has filed a cassation complaint against the ruling. Unlike with the pickpockets, this was not a court punishment but a Ministry of the Interior decision on a residence permit.

“The Ministry of the Interior evaluates all available information about a foreigner, both in their favor and against them, and weighs it,” ministry spokeswoman Hana Malá told Novinky. The gravity of the offense and its repetition play a role. How many foreigners the ministry has stripped of residence over a threat to state security or public order is not known precisely: no detailed statistics exist. Cases where its decisions were later overturned by administrative courts are not tracked either.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz