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Photo: Markéta Trnková (©MZV)
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Over 2,000 more Serbians to work in the Czech Republic

 

At its meeting on 22 June 2018, the Czech Government decided to increase the number of received employee card applications for Serbian skilled workers under the so-called “Serbia Scheme”. This change is to come into effect from 1 September 2018.

Today’s decision will make it possible to receive additional 2,000 applications every year. At present, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Belgrade receives about 1,000 applications per year (700 applications have already been received this year). The Government’s decision will now make it possible to receive up to 3,000 of these applications annually.

The decision to receive more applications has been adopted in response to the long-term shortage of skilled labour on the Czech labour market and the interest in Serbian workers among Czech employers.

The Serbia Scheme is one of the successful series of targeted labour migration schemes that have existed since 2012. The schemes help diversify labour migration and provide more employee cards for workers to fill vacancies offered by Czech employers. An example of a successful scheme is the Ukraine Scheme, existing since 2016, where the quota for employee card applications was increased to 20,000 per year starting from February 2018. Additional schemes have been introduced for countries such as Mongolia and the Philippines (annual quota of 1,000 applications per country). Serbia is another country that was included in the “schemes” while taking into account its security aspect and potential labour migration in the future.

All costs related to this change will be covered by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs from its existing funds.

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