The Organization for Aid to Refugees: Upholding Migrant Rights in Czechia

For over 30 years, the Organization for Aid to Refugees (OPU) has supported refugees and migrants in the Czech Republic. It is the country’s oldest and largest refugee and migrant aid organisation. In 2025, despite threats of tighter asylum laws and a sustained number of migrants fleeing the war in Ukraine, OPU has continued to play a vital role in protecting the rights of refugees and migrants – particularly Afghan, Syrian, Iranian, Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian nationals – through strategic litigation and advocacy.

When Czechia became the top per-capita host of Ukrainian refugees, OPU was asked to coordinate emergency help at entry points. The organisation assisted 900,000 people – including those transiting further – with basic orientation and humanitarian aid. In recognition of its work, OPU received the prestigious Olga Havel Award in 2022 and was thanked by the Czech president in 2024. OPU has also been instrumental in challenging the Czech Ministry of the Interior’s policy of denying temporary protection to Ukrainian refugees who previously got protection in other EU member states.

Hana Frankova, head of OPU’s legal department explained that; “From the first emergency response, to complicated court cases brought before judges, our lawyers helped thousands of refugees to access protection. For example, OPU represented a deaf Ukrainian man who unknowingly signed temporary protection papers in Poland. When he later sought protection in Czechia, authorities refused his application. OPU’s legal team challenged this, and both the Regional and Supreme Administrative Courts ruled in his favour. The European Court of Justice later confirmed this legal position in the 2025 Krasiliva ruling, reinforcing that Czechia cannot deny protection simply because a refugee first applied elsewhere in the EU.”

In fact, in April and May 2025, the Supreme Administrative Court issued over 70 rulings against Czechia’s rejection of Ukrainian refugees who had already received protection in another EU state. OPU represented more than half of these cases – all of which succeeded.

In parallel, OPU continues to challenge the unlawful detention of migrant children and lead national efforts to end child detention altogether, working alongside the Ministry of the Interior and UNHCR to develop viable, humane alternatives. Their efforts include a landmark case where OPU helped a wrongly detained Iraqi teenager win both an apology and compensation. Other cases include the detention of a family with two daughters fleeing threats of persecution from the Taliban that OPU brought to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; and challenging the detention of refugee families with children before the European Court of Human Rights.

Beyond individual legal cases, OPU has also contributed to the development of the 2025 Refugee Response Plan in Czechia. This plan, introduced in collaboration with government institutions and UN agencies, aims to strengthen the protection and integration of Ukrainian refugees through accessible housing, quality education, and dignified employment opportunities. OPU lawyers also regularly appear in the media and write expert reports to the UN and to the EU Asylum Agency. They also publish stories of their clients to raise awareness.

Hana concluded; “Justice can take years – that’s why long-term legal support matters. We stood by a young stateless person trapped in bureaucracy for over a decade. His parents were born in the USSR, and after it collapsed, no successor state registered them as citizens, leaving them and the boy stateless. But persistence, advocacy, and speaking out finally brought a breakthrough. Sometimes, real change just takes time – and someone who won’t give up.”