Policies of Czech State Agencies for Fighting against Illegal Migration

1. Policies of Czech State Agencies for Fighting against Illegal Migration Mathilde Darley CEFRES Prague, IEP Paris Nelegální pracovní aktivity migrantů v Česku a střední Evropě Přírodovědecká fakulta UK, Praha, 9.10.2006

2. State definition of illegal migration • Illegal border-crossing (illegal entry / illegal exit through the state borders) • Inland illegal migration (violation of the rules of residence specified by the Act on the Residence of Aliens 326/1999 and its amendments)

3. Main instruments for fighting against illegal migration • Legislation and official strategy papers • Instruments aimed at increasing the scope of control • Return migration policy • Regularization of illegal migration

4. Legislation and official strategy papers • Asylum Act 325/1999 • Alien Act 326/1999 • Law on the protection of state borders 216/2002 • Principles of the government policy in the field of foreigners’ migration (2003) • Action Plan for fighting against illegal migration (2004)

5. Increasing the scope of control Territorial scope of control • Extension of controls from borders to inland territory • Increased border controls (PHARE funding, investment in control technologies, publicity etc.) • Control of residence status by the border police in a distance of 25 km from the border • Control of illegal migration at work sites and accommodation facilities • Control “at the source”: • Program of active selection of qualified foreign workers (2003) • Visa policy • Agreements with origin and transit countries

6. Increasing the scope of control Number of agents involved in control • Involvement of foreign actors (cooperation with transit and origin countries, EU organs, DILTI, common border patrols, etc.) • Increased number of state organs involved in control (creation of an inter-ministry organ in 2000, increased cooperation between alien police, customs office and labour office for controlling illegal work) • Increased participation of private actors (Alien Act: Responsability of carriers transporting illegal migrants, increased number of illegal work controls after denunciations of Czech citizens) • Increased police competencies (cf. Alien Act, Reform of the Alien and Border Police from January 2002)

7. Return migration policy • By enforcement: Detention and expulsion of illegal migrants (increased share of expelled illegal migrants in 2005) • Voluntary return – in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration. Financial incentives for illegal migrants voluntarily going back home

8. Regularizing illegal migration • No amnesty policy in the Czech Republic • Change of status (from illegal to legal) relatively difficult BUT • Focus on measures encouraging legal work migration that is profitable to the Czech Republic: Program of active selection of qualified foreign workers, facilitated process for obtaining a work permit (Action Plan 2004), etc. • Widespread use of toleration status until September 2006 (now subsidiary protection): Quasi-legal status • Neglecting cases of illegal or quasi-legal migration and / or work (cf. clients’ system, easy access to trade licenses, prostitution of illegal migrant women etc.)

9. Gaps of migration control policies • Gaps between the visible migration control strategies and their actual impacts on migration • lack of personal in the police • simplification of border controls after the entry into the EU • very low number of migrants apprehended for illegal work compared to the total number of detained illegal migrants, • combating illegal residence / illegal work remains a secondary activity of the police border and regional departments • no information on the actual scope of illegal migration and illegal work in the Czech Republic • Problems of cooperation between all State agencies

10. Unintended consequences of migration control policies • Circumventing strategies of traffickers and illegal migrants • Increased role of traffickers in the migration process • Increased use of falsified documents • Increased use of asylum by detected illegal migrants as a way to regularize their situation • Increased use of asylum policy as an instrument of migration control • Restrictive policies: incentive for settling down • Economic, political and social costs of control

11. Conclusive hypotheses • EU often invoked to justify the reforms and the adoption of new instruments for controlling migration in the Czech Republic – A means to circumvent domestic constraints? • Illegal migration made to a state priority after ir had sharply decreased ->interactions between problem arising process and domestic migration policies? • Increasing the visibility of control -> Shift in the perception of illegal migrants from their representation as flexible labour force to their stigmatization as threatening the society’s stability • Possible increase of the social costs related to migration control by possibly encouraging xenophobic reactions towards ‘visible’ foreigners who are believed to be unwanted