Canada probably reinstating visas for Czech citizens

It is highly likely that Canada will reinstate visas for Czech citizens. According to reports published yesterday on the Lidovky.cz web server, Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney met with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout and Czech Interior Minister Martin Pecina on Monday to discuss immigration. Czech daily Lidové noviny (LN) reports its sources as saying Kenney informed Kohout and Pecina of the reinstatement at that meeting.

Apparently Czech citizens will need a visa to travel to Canada as of 8 AM on Tuesday, 7 July. According to the web server, Canada is to officially announce the move next Monday. Kohout may make a statement on the matter later today at a press conference convened by his office on an unspecified topic.

Speculation that visas would be reintroduced for Czech citizens has begun in recent weeks after the number of asylum-seekers in Canada from the Czech Republic, most of them Roma, rose once again. The Roma say they face extremist attacks in the country.

According to Lidovky.cz, Czech representatives refused to officially confirm the information that the Canadian visas would be reintroduced. In such situations it is customary to wait for the other side to make an official declaration, the server reports. “I only know something is going on that is not good,” Czech EU Affairs Minister Štefan Füle told LN.

Between January and April of this year, 1 077 Roma have left the Czech Republic for Canada. The Canadian daily Toronto Sun wrote in early June that the shelters for asylum-seekers in South Ontario are completely full. The paper says Czech Roma are flooding into Toronto, the district of Peel, and Hamilton in order to flee neo-Nazi beatings and Molotov cocktails. During all of last year, 853 Czech Roma requested asylum in Canada due to alleged discrimination. Among the current asylum-seekers are journalist Anna Poláková and her son Marek Polák, who was cruelly beaten by skinheads.

The paper reminds its readers that the number of Czech Roma asylum-seekers has grown since visas were lifted in November 2007. The paper also mentions the April case of an arson attack on a Roma family in Vítkov during which a two-year-old girl and her family sustained heavy burns.

The Toronto Sun reports that many of the Roma eventually withdraw their asylum claims. However, 75 % of Czech Roma asylum-seekers this year have been granted refugee status, and 90 % of Czech Roma asylum-seekers were granted it last year.