ROMAasylum-seekers who take their children out of school without permission could face up to two years in jail on returning home, regional officials warned last week.

More than 2,900 Czechs - mostly of Gypsy origin - have sought asylum in Britain over the past two years, including 600 in the first six months of this year. Most have their asylum applications rejected and are deported back to the republic.

Parents of children taken out of school in the northern Moravian town of Novy Jicin could be prosecuted and sentenced to up to two years in jail, officials said. Dozens of children had gone missing in the first few months of the year, special school headmaster Milan Pernicky told Czech newspaper Blesk.

“None returned textbooks and there were no explanations for their absence. Later we learned that all of them had left for England,” Mr Pernicky said.

Authorities in the town, in an industrial region close to the Czech Republic’s border with Poland, expect most of the families to return and plan to initiate prosecutions for “endangering the moral education” of their children. Officials believe children of asylum-seekers are unlikely to receive any education in Britain while applications are considered, and even if they did, it would not be recognised in their home land.

Roma leaders in the Czech Republic condemned the move, saying it would only add to the misery and woes that drove families to seek asylum in the first place.

Roma community leader Ondrej Gina said: “We don’t understand the real purpose of this, but the result will lead to further intimidation of Roma families.”

A spokeswoman for the education ministry in Prague said that, nationally, no sanctions had been imposed against Roma parents who withdrew children from school.

Children could attend school abroad, but parents should notify the Czech school and the children would still have to pass Czech school exams, she said.

“So far no sanctions have been imposed against parents, as schools prefer to solve the situation for the benefit of the children,” she added.

British immigration controls were imposed at Prague’s international airport over the summer to stem the tide of Czechs, mostly Roma, flying to Britain to claim asylum.

Discrimination in housing, education and employment, plus a rise in racial attacks, have added to pressures on Roma who have no roots in the country other than a Czech passport. Figures vary for the country’s Roma population from 11,000 to 200,000.

Many Roma children are sent to special schools when there is no actual evidence of educational subnormality.