Refugee situation in Bavaria and Czech Rep.

You won't even notice them.

Diane, great to hear things have changed since I was in Germany last year.

what have you heard, I am in daily contact with people in the CR and have heard nothing. BTW I will be in Prague at the same time , any help you need just ask

You are right, it has changed. Czech Republic, President Milos Zeman is calling for the expulsion of all economic migrants, a number likely in the hundreds of thousands.

Any idea when the expulsion is to be implemented ?

Milos Zeman's statements were made in an interview back in October. Just because a president 'calls' for something does not mean it is actually going to happen and since nothing official has come out since Oct, I would doubt that any kind of expulsion or deportation is going to happen any time soon. And regardless, the president was talking about economic immigrants not refugees. I guess I'm not sure what kind of problems you might be expecting or anticipating in your travels regarding refugees.

It's been 2 years since I was in Europe and there were issues even then.... I am trying to get updates from folk who have been in these particular regions recently. Just attempting to be as best informed as we can be. Thanks for your input....

I was in the Czech Republic and Slovakia last October and November and didn't see, hear or read about any problems with refugees or economic migrants. President Milos Zeman is not very popular there despite being a populist. His statement about hundred thousand economic migrants is baseless, there are much fewer refugees in the C.R. (or economic migrants) than that.

Maybe my observations are not recent enough since I was in Czechia twice in June, a day trip to Prague and also a day trip to Brno and Slavkov. (Austerlitz). The second day trip may not be relevant since it's not focused on the capital, Prague. I never saw any migrant types in CR. In Germany I did see migrant types and new arrivals in June of last year, you have to know how to spot them out. Most American tourists do not or wouldn't even bother trying to spot them out, fair enough. It's all very low keyed. If you don't know the change from what it was prior to the migrant influx, you won't even notice the difference now.

I would suspect that the situation has changed. Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia and even Germany have tightened up their borders. Some a little, some a lot. Then there is the fact that its been a colder than average winter. Movement slows when the weather is bad. To be honest I think the odds of meeting a pickpocket in Prague are about 10x greater than seeing a migrant; but just a guess.

I live near Frankfurt Main/Germany. I do not think that you would even notice the refugees when you are here to visit. Overfilled trains arriving in Munich are history. I have read a lot of terrible stories about the situation in Germany in the international press that are just not true.

I am in the Czech republic several times a year and in daily contact via FaceBook , email, and or phone with people in the country and have not heard of any refugee problem in the country.
I really would be interested to know why refugees would cause you problems on travelling in Europe.

Thank you for your observations ... again, when I visited a couple years ago the situation was different.... different region as well. Media hype being what it is, I thought I'd just double check what other travelers observations were. It's a tragic situation all around. I am not American, so my frame of reference is a lot different to the average American, having grown up in a civil war. Thank you again for your input.

It's a fair question, I can think of several reasons to want to know what's going on. Because I have a business in that depends on tourism I track it the best I can and so far I'm not too worried.

"I really would be interested to know why refugees would cause you problems on travelling in Europe."

"Refugees" is supposed to refer to persecuted Syrian newcomers to Germany. But it is also applied (incorrectly, by some) to ALL migrants entering Germany from the Middle East and North Africa, some of whom enter with fake passports and faulty documentation and masquerade as Syrians so they can enter for other reasons - some of them not so nice. So correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of us use "refugee situation" or the "refugee crisis" when we really mean the problems caused by people who didn't get properly vetted at the border.

So no, twoltlguys, tourists like you have little to fear from the genuine refugees. But both Germany and tourists in Germany are at some small but undefined level of increased risk from some of those who wrongly slipped through but are mislabeled "refugees" . Both the Freiburg murder and the assault on Berlin's Christmas market were the work of fake refugees who were real bad guys.

You gotta love it. Okay, so there are groups of individuals traveling across Europe represented by: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/df/e4/c7/dfe4c71d4d4f111a4a56783cd13e7b50.jpg; Some in the jpg are migrants and some are refuges. Since they are all traveling together and have little or no documentation I cant tell one from another. Does this impact your vacation plans. Excellent Question. Right now, the little black dots are at a minimum due to certain border controls and weather conditions. Two years ago the trains were packed, the railroad stations were packed, the trash was strewn over miles and miles of trails, in some locations there were large groups of unemployed, homeless males of 20 to 30 years of age gathered on street corners, and there were other conditions that might OR MIGHT NOT have had an impact on your travels. As a result I had guests end up in internment camps by error and other guests unable to make a simple 3 hour train ride. Still, I cant see any indication that the event of two years ago will be repeated this spring.

Posting comments and links to events that happened 2 years ago isn't very helpful to the question posted by the OP.

There is not a refugee problem or "situation" happening anywhere in Germany. Those that profess that there is a problem, do not live here, do not read German news or watch German TV. I wish they would stop.
The only real problems that are happening are from neo-nazis who attack refugee shelters. These are not located in tourist areas.

i believe my question has been answered .... thanks to those gave straightforward answers....had absolutely no intention of starting a heated discussion...looking forward to a wonderful visit to CR and Germany.

Posting comments and links to events that happened 2 years ago isn't
very helpful to the question posted by the OP.

Ms. Jo, I agree! Just horrible!! Of course you realize that my link was a photo of little black dots? And my conclusion was, this year wont be like 2 years ago? But of course you read that and you were referring to some one or something else. But, Just out of curiosity tonight I googled news and you are right. I can only find one migrant attack on a tourist in all of Germany over the last 2 weeks. So you are right.

It isn't right to cherry-pick the news. When you do this, it means you then only seek out the news that supports your own personal agenda. This isn't fair and it isn't balanced.

The amount of crime done by Germans certainly outweighs any done by migrants or refugees. The amount of crime done by the far right like AfD, Pegida movement, or neo-nazis, is also ignored.

The OP has said that they have their answer, so it would be great if the webmaster would delete or at least close this thread to more comments.

German-on-refugee crime? That's not a safety concern for travelers like twoltlguys. Like Ms. Jo says, it happens in refugee camps and housing zones, not in tourist areas. And real-refugee-on-tourist crime is next-to-non-existent as well. Anyway, we tourists do not care who is behind random public attacks, whether it's a refugee, or an illegal migrant, or someone else - we just don't want to be victimized in public places.

About the German news... I don't live in Germany but I used to. I follow German news sources nearly every day - in German. Not that I have to do it in German... One good source is Deutsche Welle, Germany's answer to PBS in the US, which publishes news not only in German but translates it in 30 languages. Talk about accessibility. It's a small world and we can all keep ourselves informed - and now we can access many foreign news sources in our own language if we wish. Other German news sources publish in English as well.

If you want news/information on criminal/terrorist attacks in public places in Germany, that's easy these days. Less than 2 months ago Anis Amri, a criminal who slipped into Germany under the refugee program, killed 7 Germans and 5 foreigners, presumably tourists, at a Berlin Christmas market. 56 people were injured - at least 10 from other European countries, 1 from Lebanon, 1 from Israel, and 2 from the USA. This and other random attacks, like the one on the Chinese family on the Würzburg train last summer, are obviously a problem to think about - for Germans and for foreign tourists. Most Germans acknowledge the problem; some don't wish to. But such facts are available everywhere in any language for the tourist's consideration. The facts tell me that I am very unlikely to experience such a horrible event. I put my chances of making it back home from Germany safely in the same ballpark with my chances of surviving a soccer play-off event. But I will keep my eye on the news and numbers, in Germany and anywhere else I travel.