Czech Roma barred from flights to UK

Britain has come up with a new way of avoiding asylum applications from gypsies fleeing racism and poverty in the Czech Republic – stopping them getting on to a plane to Britain in the first place.

Passengers arriving at Prague airport to catch flights to the UK now face questioning from British embassy officials before they are even allowed to check in. The officials can refuse any passenger leave to enter the UK, in effect making it impossible for them to fly. All passengers, including British holidaymakers catching their return flight home, are subject to questioning.

But a British embassy official openly admitted the move was aimed specifically at gypsies, or Roma. The British ambassador to the Czech Republic, David Broucher, said the inspections were to stop "the continued, systematic abuse of our immigration and asylum system by some Czech citizens". An embassy spokesman confirmed that the "Czech citizens" in question were gypsies.

In the first six months of this year, 1,233 Czech gypsies applied for asylum in the UK, a large increase on last year, according to British officials.

No Czech gypsy has ever been granted asylum by the British government – although a handful have been granted by the courts on appeal – despite regular lectures from British foreign secretaries to the Czech government on ill-treatment of gypsies by Czech society. In one case, the local authority in a Czech village built a wall to separate gypsy houses from the rest of the village.

The inspections at Prague airport follow an agreement signed by the British and Czech governments in February. British officials at Prague airport cannot legally prevent anyone from boarding a flight to Britain. But they can warn airlines that a passenger will be refused entry on arrival. That can cost airlines money flying the passengers back to Prague, and in practice the airlines will not accept passengers under those circumstances.