Canada confirms lifting of visas for Czechs 'imminent'
The Canadian Embassy has confirmed media reports that the government in
Ottawa is on the verge of lifting visas for Czechs. Visas for Czechs
wishing to visit Canada were reintroduced in 2009 following a rise in the
number of Roma people seeking asylum. The Czech government had appealed to
the European Union to put pressure on Canada to abolish the visa
requirement.
Canada’s newly-appointed ambassador to Prague Otto Jelinek confirmed to
the Czech News Agency on Thursday that the reports in the Canadian media
– claiming Ottawa was on the verge of lifting visas for Czechs – were
true.
Canada’s Postmedia News site had been reporting that the federal
government was expected to abolish travel visas for Czechs within weeks,
quoting Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander as
saying the government had been working “for some time to get to this
place”.
The move, he said, should be seen as a measure of “good faith” and an
“important step forward in relations with the Czech Republic.” The
reimposition of visas in 2009 had deeply angered the Czechs; the country
had appealed to the European Union to put pressure on Canada and had even
threatened to refuse to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade
Agreement (CETA), a key trade deal between Canada and the world’s largest
economy.
The visa issue has for several years been a thorn in the side of
Czech-Canadian relations. Canadian citizens enjoy visa-free travel to any
country in the Schengen Area, which includes the Czech Republic. Until
2009, the reverse was true as well – any citizen from the Schengen Area,
including Czechs, could visit Canada freely and stay there for up to six
months.
In July 2009, that changed, when Ottawa, alarmed at the number of Roma asylum seekers from the Czech Republic arriving in Canada, suddenly
reintroduced visas for Czech citizens. Now, Czechs must apply for a visa at the Canadian Embassy in Prague. The number of Czechs visiting Canada
– a country with a large Czech émigré community and lots of people going back and forth – has fallen by one third as a result.
Canada has said in the past it must first be assured the number of asylum
seekers would not rise again before agreeing to lift visas. Relations
between white Czechs and Romanies have if anything worsened since 2009;
regular neo-Nazi marches have targeted Roma communities in recent months.
Certainly there’s no guarantee that Czech Roma won’t decide to board a
plane and once again seek asylum in Canada – where many of their
relatives now live.
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