More than two years after the Czech Republic joined the European Union, the percentage of asylum applications that the country approves continues to hover well below the EU average, new statistics from the Interior Ministry show.

In 2005, EU countries granted an average of 18 percent of asylum requests. During that period, 4,021 people — mostly Egyptians, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Chinese and Vietnamese — requested asylum in the Czech Republic. Only 251 were granted it, giving the country an approval rate of about 6 percent.

Asylum recognition is still better than it once was. In 2003, a flood of refugees from Chechnya overwhelmed the Czech system and less than 2 percent of those who requested asylum got it. Since that year, asylum requests have fallen by more than two-thirds, and approval rates have been creeping upward.

But the system needs much improvement, says Martin Rozumek, director of the Czech-based Association for Aid to Refugees.

"We see very fast rejections [of asylum claims], bad decisions made in just a few days," he said.

'Somewhere in the middle'

The Interior Ministry says the numbers don't tell the full story.

"It is misleading to work with a general percentage figure of asylums granted as a whole," said Petr Vorlíček, a spokesman for the ministry. "Developments are specific for each year, and the number of granted asylum claims depend on particular situations."

"Ours is not a low [recognition] rate," said Tomáš Haišman, director of the department for asylum and migration policy at the Interior Ministry. "Our asylum procedures are comparable to those of other EU states, like Germany and Sweden."

The ministry says the country approves fewer asylum applications than other countries because many applicants illegally leave for countries farther west before their requests can be processed. Also, many that apply for asylum are not really eligible, and only do so in an attempt to circumvent normal immigration procedures, Haišman said.

"Asylum should be a question of persecution. ... If a person asks for asylum simply because of the economic situation in his home country, then that is not a legitimate claim," he said. "Each request is studied in-depth and the decision is made by considering all factors."

Despite its low acceptance rate, the Czech Republic is not the worst in the EU, said Rozumek.

Slovakia, for example, approved 0.8 percent of all asylum requests in 2005, according to the United Nations' High Commission for Refugees.

"Some countries that are not able or willing to accept refugees reject everyone without considering individual cases," Rozumek said. Other states have a reputation for being much more refugee-friendly, like neighboring Austria, which has an acceptance rate hovering above 40 percent.

"The Czech Republic is somewhere in the middle," Rozumek said.

'A lottery game'

Chris Nash, a London-based legal officer with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, said asylum approval rates across the EU vary from between 0.8 percent and 42 percent.

This wide range is testament to serious flaws within the EU's asylum policies, Rozumek and Nash said.

EU members must adhere to a group of laws called the Dublin II Regulations, which means individuals can only apply for asylum once within the EU, in the country in which they first landed. Critics say the policy is unfair because individuals' chances of receiving asylum can vary wildly depending on where they apply, regardless of the legitimacy of their claim.

"The reality is that there isn't a level playing field in the Europe. It makes claiming asylum a lottery game," said Nash.

All EU members, not just the Czech Republic, need to work to improve this policy, he said.

"There have been some improvements in the Czech recognition rate, but we have huge divergences from one EU country to another. There's still a long way to go."