Finley emphasised that Ottawa does not want to reintroduce visa requirements for Czechs, which it abolished last year, in reaction to the current higher number of Czech applicants for Canadian asylum. She said the number of asylum seekers from a foreign country is only one of about 14 criteria Canadian authorities consider while assessing Ottawa's visa policy. None of the recent asylum seekers coming from the Czech Republic has Most Czechs indifferent to Czech EU presidency - poll ...
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Bush meets with Calderon, Harper over NAFTA ... gained Canadian asylum so far, Finley said. She did not give the exact number of the Czech applicants. The Czech figures are not exceptional, said Finley, who visited Hungary and Poland before arriving in Prague. She spoke about Canada and the Czech Republic's joint effort to solve the problem satisfactorily so that the visa duty need not be reintroduced. Some time ago, the Canadian embassy in Prague disclosed the numbers of Czech asylum seekers in the five months following last November's lifting of the visa duty. The number was 267 at the time.
Now, according to CTK's unofficial information, it stands at almost 500. The Canadian press wrote earlier this year that Ottawa would start considering the visa reintroduction if the number of Czech applicants reached 580. Finley said today that the Canadian asylum system is separated from the government. Each case is assessed separately. The criteria include the conditions in the applicant's homeland, the way he/she would be approached if he/she returned home, Finley said. She said the number of asylum seekers in Canada far exceeds the number of those who are really granted asylum. Schwarzenberg said the applicants for Canadian asylum are in no way persecuted in the Czech Republic. Canada introduced visa requirements for Czechs in 1997 in reaction to a massive influx of mainly Romany asylum seekers from the Czech Republic. Schwarzenberg said Prague cannot limit the Czech citizens' right to travel. That is why the Czech Republic tries to explain that the reasons the asylum seekers come up with are not based on the truth and that Prague is trying hard to remove certain shortcomings. Some unsuccessful asylum seekers have already returned to the Czech Republic, a step that is not always easy after two months spent overseas, Schwarzenberg said. In 1996-2000, a total of 1,677 Czechs applied for asylum in Canada and 962 were granted it. The highest number of applications was registered in 1997 when 1,221 Czechs submitted them.
(Ceske Noviny)
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