Every day I work on human rights in the Czech Republic, I know that at the same moment, hundreds of people are working towards the same goal across the EU. We aren’t giving up.
– Zuzana Pavelková, Organization for Aid to Refugees, Czech Republic
Zuzana Pavelková, a legal advisor to migrants and asylum seekers at the Organization for Aid to Refugees in the Czech Republic, has seen the impact of disappearing borders firsthand. As a high school student in the early 2000s, she participated in a Czech-German exchange program and attended a school across the border. Coming from a disadvantaged area of North Bohemia, going to school abroad wasn’t common, especially to Germany, a country many older people had negative opinions of. When she first started school, Zuzana needed a visa and passed through regular border control weekly. That faded as the Czech Republic joined the Schengen area.
“I’ve never understood why some people, like me, are allowed to move within Europe, and others are not. After being in Germany, I had the opportunity to study in France, Hungary and the Netherlands. These experiences made me who I am today and inspired me to help migrants and asylum seekers.”
Zuzana’s family experienced human rights violations during World War II. Her great-grandfather died in a concentration camp in Germany, and her other great-grandparents had very difficult experiences during the war. Growing up, her family didn’t have the language of human rights to describe what they went through, but the suffering was clear. Zuzana could feel what it meant to have your fundamental rights violated.
Now, Zuzana spends her days giving legal advice to migrants and asylum seekers around the Czech Republic. Does being a member of the EU help her work? “Absolutely.”
Without EU law, the Czech asylum system would be even stricter, Zuzana believes. EU law and court rulings help her and her colleagues to push for their system to comply better with human rights and afford greater and more coherent protection to those seeking it. The European asylum system is far from ideal, she says, but it does have elements that help her clients. For example, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that LGBTQ asylum seekers cannot be returned to their home countries if they would be forced to be closeted. Sexual orientation is such an essential part of your life, you cannot be expected to hide it. Without that ruling, Zuzana thinks that Czech authorities would claim that asylum seekers from countries like Iran, which has the death penalty for sexual acts between people of the same sex, should be returned. This has helped some of the Organization for Aid to Refugees’ LGBTQ clients stay in the country.
The Organization for Aid to Refugees has been incredibly successful in helping its clients seek protection in the Czech Republic. It has won about 70% of its cases about children in migration detention. That success, however, has made it a target for individuals and national authorities.
Almost daily, the organization receives hate speech on social media. Far-right populist politicians have called out the Organization for Aid to Refugees in defamatory speeches in parliament. In 2015, when more refugees and migrants reached the European Union’s external borders than ever before, Zuzana’s organization received regular threats. Their office door was vandalized with hate speech, their leaders received death threats, the office was sent unidentified white powder, and hate speech increased online.
“We go out of our way to support others in need, even when faced with extremely challenging environments.”
Zuzana hopes supportive members of parliament will speak up for her and other organisations helping migrants. In 2021, the Czech government said it would fund migrant services from the national budget rather than accepting EU funds. It issued a tender and awarded the contract to a law firm without migration or asylum law experience. That has prevented the Organization for Aid to Refugees and other civil society organisations from providing legal services to migrants in detention. Zuzana says their services are better and cheaper than they are currently receiving. The Czech Ombudsperson has been trying to help civil society access these detention centers. Zuzana would like a member of the European Commission or European Parliament to ask the Czech government for a constructive dialogue on accessing migrants in detention.
Anyone who works in a civil society organization will tell you that monitoring and reporting what is happening in the field is a full-time job. Zuzana would like to see the EU and other donors specifically fund and support NGO staff to provide this critical information to policymakers.
Across Europe, especially in countries like Greece and Italy, human rights defenders that provide humanitarian aid to migrants can face prosecution under smuggling charges, which Zuzana believes are “unfair and unverified.” The EU Facilitation Directive uses a very broad definition of smuggling, making this easy for member states to do. Clearly excluding humanitarian assistance from the definition would help protect human rights defenders.
Overall, the EU is doing relatively well in engaging with civil society working on migration issues, Zuzana says. The EU Asylum Agency’s Consultative Forum is a good example of meaningful cooperation between civil society and the EU. It is interested in receiving civil society’s input, which has gone into handbooks and training materials.
Zuzana is hopeful that the EU will continue to improve conditions for migrants and asylum seekers, and those working to uphold their rights.
“I really believe we’re on track towards better human rights protection in the long-term.”
Zuzana Pavelková is a senior lawyer at the Organization for Aid to Refugees (OPU) in the Czech Republic. Zuzana focuses on litigating the rights of children and vulnerable migrants deprived of liberty in immigration detentions. She also accompanies vulnerable asylum seekers and survivors of torture and human trafficking in domestic legal procedures.
