'Degrading' Czech migrant camps spark outrage

The United Nations on Thursday accused the Czech Republic of systematic abuses of migrants, detaining them in "degrading" conditions as part of what the UN called a policy to dissuade them from entering Czech territory.

 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Thursday condemned Czech authorities for detaining migrants and refugees for "up to 90 days -- in conditions which have been described as degrading."

 He added that by detaining migrants who had not yet applied for asylum, the "Czech government was seeking to deter migrants and refugees from entering the country or staying there."

 The comments echo those of Czech human rights official, Anna Sabatova who said last week that conditions at a local detention centre for refugees, including children, were worse than in jail.

 "The fact that hundreds of children have passed through this facility runs counter to our idea of the Czech Republic as a civilised country," Sabatova said after visiting a centre in Bela-Jezova, northeast of Prague.

 She also said that refugees were "degraded in front of their children, being transported to the centre in handcuffs and locked behind a four-metre (13-foot) fence with barbed wire."

 Leftist Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka told reporters Thursday that the UN's criticism was "out of place" and invited UN officials to come and see for themselves.

 "We'll be glad to show them all our detention centres... I think they'll find out the Czech Republic offers standard, decent, reasonable conditions for the accommodation of refugees," he said.

 But Justice Minister Robert Pelikan himself had earlier described the Bela-Jezova facility as being "worse than a prison."