Czech Romany broadcast executive asks for asylum in Canada

One of the Romany asylum seekers in Canada is Anna Polakova, pictured at left, the chief of Romany programming at the state-owned Czech Radio.

Prague media report that Polakova sent an e-mail to her bosses in Prague, saying that she decided to make a refugee claim in Canada with six members of her family. She said her departure was not connected with her work at the radio station but with her unease about the growing number of racist attacks in the Czech Republic and the radicalization of society. She requested unpaid leave from her job that she has held since 1998.

Polakova was part of a group of Czech Romanys who lived at Toronto's Pearson International Airport for a week. They have since left for Hamilton, Ontario, to await a decision on their refugee claims.

Czech media reported that more than 600 Czech Romanys have applied to be admitted as refugees in the first three months of this year.

There have been a number attacks on Romas this year, including the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at a Romany house in which a two-year-old girl was seriously injured. Rightist groups have held marches in towns where Romanys live and a recent poll said relations between Caucasian Czech citizens and the Romanys were the worst in a decade.