Krakow, Poland (CBS News) As the Czech Republic prepares for the first major EU summit since the refugee crisis, many people in the region are looking for the crossword puzzles they’ve been searching for all summer.
“I have found the crosswords and have been looking for them,” said Kraków, Poland, resident Maria Storchak.
Storcyk, who has been searching in the capital, Prague, for a long time, has come across the cross-words in a shop in Krakowski Square and is looking forward to her first crossword in six years.
The crosswords are in two sets.
One set is the standard set of four symbols, which can be translated as “go to” or “leave.”
For Storchyk, it’s a challenge to decipher the symbols on the set.
“When I first saw the set I thought it was for a friend,” she said.
“Then I realized it was not for me, because I’m a crossword expert.
But after a while I found it is my favorite puzzle set.
So I’m going to take it home and I’m just going to put it in my house.”
Storczyk is one of about 300,000 Czechs living in the Czech capital.
The Czech Republic is home to about 1.5 million people, making it the largest economy in the EU, and it has been grappling with its refugee crisis.
The government is pushing for more migrants to be admitted to the country to ease the burden on the economy.
Czech President Milos Zeman has promised to do more to help refugees.
He announced plans to offer financial aid to refugees and migrants in the country.
He said in a speech to the Prague University that the government will grant asylum to 200,000 refugees by next March and create 10,000 new jobs in the economy by 2020.
“We are very happy to welcome more people and more people are coming,” Zeman said at the event, which was broadcast on TVR, Czech Republic’s national broadcaster.
“The refugees are welcome, but the work is not done.”
But the Czech government also has problems with the crosswalk puzzle.
It has to meet the country’s strict requirements to open its borders to the thousands of refugees and other migrants arriving in Europe.
The country’s immigration minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, said the government would be willing to accept only people who had been vetted by the Czech national border police.
Sobotkea said it would take months to assess every applicant.
Some of those in the government’s backlog are already waiting to get their first job.
“There are people who want to start a business, but they don’t have the money to open a shop,” Sobotkas office said.
The first wave of refugees arriving in the spring were allowed to remain in the Slovak Republic.
But many others from eastern Europe who arrived in the summer have had to return home.
Sobodka said the Czech authorities would be opening borders in August and the country would be ready to open the borders in September.
The refugees have not yet been allowed to cross into Poland, but there is a backlog of applications waiting for an answer.
A border guard at the southern border with Germany said he has been told there are about 50 applications waiting in the southern town of Bratislava.
“So it’s not a problem,” he said.