Author
| Name in English | Number of staff | Ministry responsible | Is there any political interference possible by the responsible Minister with the decision making in individual cases by the first instance authority? |
| Department of Asylum and Migration Policy | 1,298 | Ministry of Interior | No |
| Unit for International Protection | 55 | Ministry of Interior | No |
Source: Information provided on request by the MoI.
The body responsible for assessing applications for international protection is the Asylum and Migration Policy Department (OAMP). This is a department within the Ministry of the Interior which deals specifically with international protection, the entry and residence of foreigners, the coordination of the integration of foreigners, international and European cooperation in the field of asylum and migration, Schengen cooperation, border protection, and return policy. Among other things, the OAMP is also a unit within the Ministry that is responsible for managing the organizational component of the state, the Refugee Facilities Administration (RFA) of the Ministry of the Interior; it submits proposals for the establishment or change of the nature of asylum facilities or facilities for the detention of foreigners.
Depending on the focus of the activities and scope of competence of the individual departments, a distinction can be made between central and regional offices. The central offices of the OAMP deal with the general concept and direction of the Czech Republic’s migration policy, which also applies to other regional offices of the OAMP. In addition to the central office, the OAMP has regional offices in all 14 regions of the Czech Republic. There are one or more departments in each region that deal with specialized activities.
The OAMP is therefore a body that not only decides on applications for international protection, but is also responsible, among other things, for processing all applications from foreigners for residence permits. However, within the OAMP there is an International Protection Department, whose employees specialize only in assessing asylum applications at the first level. All employees of the International Protection Department participate in decision-making on matters of international protection, except for 17 purely administrative staff members. However, these employees do not deal exclusively with asylum decisions, they also carry out other administrative tasks, including matters related to stateless persons, residence statuses, and detention. These activities can no longer be clearly separated from one another.