Czech PM urges UK to stop attacks on citizens

 

The Czech prime minister has called on his British counterpart, Theresa May, to take steps in stemming violence against Czechs and other citizens from the European countries in the United Kingdom following the Brexit vote.

“The Czech government finds it unacceptable to see Czechs attacked because of their origin and being treated as second-class citizens,” Bohuslav Sobotka said in a phone interview with May on Thursday.

“Therefore I asked the British prime minister ... to let me know what measures her government will adopt to stop these hateful attacks,” he added.

The Czech premier further noted that he was “disturbed by the increase in hateful attacks in Britain aimed at the citizens of EU member states”.

Czech authorities said some 37,000 Czechs worked in the UK last year.

The call was made after a 31-year-old Czech man, identified as Zdenek Makar, was killed in a brawl in London last week. The British police arrested three men and accused one of them of murder.

The assault came after a fatal incident in which a Pole had been beaten to death in Harlow, north of London, late in August. Two other Polish nationals were attacked in the same town earlier this month.

The Polish Embassy said 31 incidents of hate crime - the highest rate among other foreign missions - had been logged since June 23, including eight attacks in the past three weeks.

In a report published by the UK's National Police Chief's Council (NPCC), over 3,000 incidents of hate crimes were reported to police across Britain between June 16 and 30, a 42-percent surge as compared to the same period in 2015.

Hate crime is defined as an offense, perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.

Researchers have linked the upsurge in xenophobic attacks to the buildup of anti-EU sentiment before and after the Brexit referendum.

In the June 23 referendum, about 52 percent of British voters opted to leave the EU, while roughly 48 percent of the people voted to stay in the union. More than 17.4 million Britons said the country should leave the bloc as just over 16.14 million others favored remaining in the EU.