PRAGUE (Sputnik) — Earlier in July the Czech government announced it was ready to accept 1,500 refugees over the next two years. The country would begin hosting migrants in September, with plans to provide homes for 400 migrants by the end of the year.
Some 72 percent of the surveyed Czechs oppose accepting migrants from North Africa and the Middle East, according to a poll conducted by the Center for the Study of Public Opinion (CSPO).
Only 24 percent of the respondents supported the initiative.
Earlier this month, Czech President Milos Zeman said that refugees accepted by his country must be of a "similar cultural background."
Shortly before that, members of the Czech clergy offered to provide homes for Christian refugees.
In May, the European Commission called on EU member states to let in some of the 40,000 refugees from Africa and the Middle East who had landed in Italy and Greece. Brussels laid out a quota system for refuge adoption that took into account social and economic indicators of each country.
Initially, the Czech Republic, along with the United Kingdom, France, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Slovakia protested against the quota system, but eventually agreed to the program.
In recent months, Europe has been beset by major migrant crisis as thousands of people have fled conflict-torn countries in North Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South Asia, risking a sea journey.
