After today’s demonstration against the eviction of families from a residential hotel in the Czech town of Ústí nad Labem, police officers arrested 12 people in Prague who refused to leave the building of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MPSV). The transport of those arrested from the scene was accompanied by small-scale scuffles between approximately 30 demonstrators and the police.
The protesters demanded the release of those arrested, first shouting curses at the police officers and then throwing snowballs at them. According to Prague Police spokesperson Tomáš Hulan, those detained are suspected of committing misdemeanors and will be released once they have given statements.
"They told me they are taking those detained to the police station because they committed the misdemeanor of not obeying the instructions of a police officer," demonstration organizer Dalibor Záhora told the Czech Press Agency. He said a group of young people made it up to the first floor of the building once the event was over, where they did their best to get a clearer statement from the ministry about the upcoming evictions. "I did not organize forcing our way into the building, but I understand the motivation of those who did so," Záhora said.
Approximately 150 people demonstrated in front of the MPSV building prior to the police intervention. They were protesting the eviction of families whose members are of both majority nationality and of Romani minority nationality from a residential hotel in the Krásné Březno quarter of Ústí nad Labem.
Organizers of the event from the Housing for All (Bydlení pro všechny) initiative delivered a letter addressed to Labor and Social Affairs Minister Ludmila Müllerová (TOP 09) demanding an accelerated resolution to the situation that will prevent the family members from being separated from one another. The residential hotel into which the municipality evicted the families from a building that is in danger of collapse in the Předlice quarter is now scheduled to close on 1 February.
"Over the course of the past few months, the town has been unable to propose a different solution other than sticking the women and children into shelters and sending the men to live in various other residential hotels outside of town or sending them to live on the street. Should these people be evicted, the result will be broken families, homeless men, and a vacant building," representatives of the initiative said.
Deputy Minister for Social and Family Policy David Kafka said the ministry disagrees with the families being split up. However, he warned that since the MPSV does not oversee social housing, the problem is actually under the purview of the Regional Development Ministry. Kafka also said the issue should be resolved by the town hall of Ústí nad Labem and the Regional Authority.
The buildings in the Předlice quarter, including the one from which the tenants were evicted into the residential hotel, have long been in a troubling state of repair. The town has already had to demolish several such buildings at its own expense.
The situation came to a head last September when a ceiling collapsed in one building, killing one woman and injuring another. The collapse was caused by metal parts being scavenged from the load-bearing structure of the building.
The dangerous buildings have since been labeled with signs forbidding entry.
While no one is officially occupying them now, people were staying in them prior to the ceiling collapse incident and were removing their metal load-bearing elements for resale. The town councilors have decided to demolish the buildings.
At the start of last November, at the urging of the authorities and people working for nonprofits, 27 children and nine adults moved out of one such building on Beneše Lounského street. They first lived temporarily for several days in the gym of the elementary school in Předlice, but kept returning to their old building despite warnings from security guards not to do so. Subsequently they were found temporary accommodation in the residential hotel in the Krásné Březno quarter from which they are now to be evicted.
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