Canada to lift travel visas for Czechs

 

Plan comes amid reports European trade deal is near

 

BY TOBI COHEN, POSTMEDIA NEWS OCTOBER 17, 2013

 

 

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 1 )

 

 

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says the government is committed to 'supporting legitimate trade and travel.'

Photograph by: Chris Mikula , The Ottawa Citizen

Within a matter of weeks, the federal government is expected to lift travel visas for those coming to Canada from the Czech Republic, Postmedia News has learned.

Asked about the plan, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said in a statement that the government has been working "for some time to get to this place" and that the country has made "important changes" since the visa was first imposed four years ago.

"This should be seen as a good-faith measure, and an important expression of our commitment to supporting legitimate trade and travel," he said. "Canada values our strong relations with our European friends. We view this as an important step forward in relations with the Czech Republic."

Canada slapped visas on the Czech Republic in 2009 due to skyrocketing asylum claims, many of them involving ethnic Roma. The move angered the central European nation, which vowed not to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) if Canada didn't lift the visa requirement.

Last month, the European Parliament also voted in favour of a reciprocity clause that would slap visas on countries that saddle citizens of member nations with the same. Canada currently requires visas for European Union citizens from Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

Senior government officials said CETA negotiations are "at a very important juncture" and that the visa was considered an "irritant" to finalizing the deal.

That said, officials maintain lifting the visa requirement will not compromise "safety and security issues, immigration issues and socioeconomic push factors" that were taken into consideration when Canada decided to impose the visa in the first place.

"The standard has been met to allow us to lift the visa requirement on Czech nationals," said a source.

While Mexico has also raised concerns about visas, the government has made no decision yet to lift that visa requirement.

Last month, Mexican Ambassador Francisco Suarez told The Canadian Press that his country was "really mad" at the Canadian government for failing to remove the visa requirement, which was also imposed in 2009 following a spike in asylum claims from the country. If the issue isn't resolved by next year, he said, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto might postpone his planned visit to Canada. He suggested it could also adversely affect economic cooperation in areas such as energy and natural resources.

It's not clear whether Canada is considering lifting visa requirements for Bulgarians and Romanians.

Canada is moving toward visa-free travel for all citizens of the EU. In recent years, Canada lifted visas on Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Croatia.

The move, however, led to a spike in asylum claims, particularly among Hungarian Roma. Citizenship and Immigration tried to rectify that by revamping the refugee system and making it more difficult for people from so-called "safe" countries to seek asylum.

Some 37 countries are currently listed as safe, including Mexico and all EU countries, except for Romania and Bulgaria.

Listed countries are considered atypical producers of bona fide refugees because they respect human rights and offer state protection.

About six months after the safe country list was adopted last December, asylum claims were down by more than half. The list is thought to be a first step toward visa removal.