Canada imposes a visa on the Czech Republic

On July 14, 2009 Canadian government has imposed visa requirement on the Czech Republic (and Mexico) with no prior notice. Anyone willing to travel to Canada just 48 hours later needed to make the trip to Canadian embassy in Vienna in advance (up to 400 km away) to obtain visa.

It's a pity that decent people of both countries will now be affected because of:
1) Unadaptable minority of people from the Czech Republic who don't want to work for living
2) The fact that Canada has the most generous refugee system in the world and is not willing to make necessary changes to keep it sustainable.

How sad :-(

Canadian government was offered solution of the problem - listing the Czech Republic as safe country of origin (therefore no refugee claim can be accepted). But this solution seemed quite unpopular. I was wondering why.

Martin Collacott in National Post points out:

"When the legislation establishing the IRB (Immigration and Refugee Board) came into effect, however, the refugee lobby was successful in pressuring the government into not declaring any other countries to be “safe.” The objective was to ensure that our door would be left as wide open as possible. As a result, our refugee-determination system has been constantly clogged, and at times overwhelmed, by thousands of claims from people whom no other country would permit to register an asylum application."

Here is also an interesting point:

"With regard to the thousands of Romas (once known as Gypsies) from the Czech Republic who have made claims here since we lifted the visa requirement for that country in 2007, the key question is whether they are suffering persecution at the hands of the authorities there. There is no shortage of evidence that they suffer from various forms of discrimination in Europe (as opposed to persecution) - but this does not make them refugees according to the international definition. If we were prepared to let everyone in the world who suffers some form of “discrimination” to make refugee claims in Canada, we could be inundated with millions of claims."

"If, for example, discrimination rather than persecution by the government were the criteria for claiming to be a refugee, many, if not most, Canadian natives should be able to claim refugee status in one country or another."

Quoted from National Post: Canada has the most generous refugee system in the world

I really appreciate how Canada helps refugees from all over the world. This is something which its citizens should be proud of. On the other hand, I really hope that this issue will be solved as soon as possible. Hopefully Czechs and Canadians will be able to travel freely soon again and Canada will be, again, able to effectively help to those, who really need it.

More:

BBC Article: Canada re-introduces visas for Czechs

Interesting discussion under Globe & Mail article: Canada slaps visa requirements on Mexicans and Czechs

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