February 10, 2010
Published: 15 Jul 09 14:54 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/20678/20090715/
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Speaking for the European Union presidency, Swedish migration minister Tobias Billström said on Wednesday that the EU supported requiring visas for Canadians travelling to the EU in response to Canada’s decision to impose visa restrictions on Czech nationals.
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If Tobias Billstrom is siding with the Czechs over Canada on this issue then he really is an idiot in my opinion.
I agree with Mack that the whole problem comes from a bureaucratic limitation. The officials cannot just deny asylum to a small number of apparent bogus seekers immediately, they must investigate, allow appeal and so on. So now they have to find the other way around: request visa for a much higher number of normal travelers, employ a number of clerks to take care of it. And in the end they will again just deny the apparent asylum seekers, the only difference from the first case is that the decision cannot be appealed. Isn't that stupid?
How come can we ban an EU member because a particular group of this country?
Are the Gypsies denied to be citizens of EU? Are the Gypsies non grata in Canada?
The only problem with immigration in Canada is our immigration laws based on CORRUPTION.
Canada only lifted the visa requirement from the Czech Republic in 2007. Prior to that a visa was required.
Since the visa requirement was dropped the number of Czech Roma "refugee" claimants has increased 993% in 2008 since 2006. Seems more than just a little strange wouldn't you agree.
The Czech government is encouraging the Roma to leave and has even been encouraging them to apply to Canada as bogus refugees.
Like Sweden, Canada has a relatively liberal refugee policy, but the Czech (and Mexican) claimants are not legitimate refugees. They are tying up resources that should be for legitimate refugees.
Neither the Czech or the Mexican governments are making any effort at their end to stop this influx of fake refugees into Canada. That left Canada no other choice than to take action on its own and require visas from these countries.
I support the Canadian government 100% on this issue..
Actually I have no interest in moving to Sweden. I've visited and like the Swedes but have no reason to ever live there.
I'm actually very surprised the Czech Roma "refugees" are applying to Canada and not Sweden or some other EU country.
On the other hand I find it ridiculous that Sweden would advocate an EU-wide tit-for-tat diplomatic spat when the real issue should be how to safeguard the rights of all EU citizens so that nobody in the EU feels the need to claim refugee status in another country.
Once again politicians adopt elementary-school playground tactics in international relations rather than sitting down, thinking, and coming up with innovative and practical solutions that address the actual issues at hand.
This is an excellent point. If Swedish or Canadian minority group citizens were seeking refugee status in another country everybody in the entire world would be asking human rights questions about Sweden/Canada but it seems that nobody is bothering asking such questions about the Czechs despite being a EU country. Are all EU countries not held to the same human rights standard?
It seems that Tobias Billstrom is avoiding the real issue and is much more concerned about Canada putting a visa restriction on a EU country than he is about a EU country not living up to a EU human rights standard.
Canada is not the bad guy here. The Czechs and their treatment of their own minority citizens as well as the EU's hypocritical double standard on this issue is what should be examined.
it is totally correct for the EU to be 100% behind the Czechs in this matter.
The only idiots here are clearly the Canadian government if they are incapable of passing laws that will allow them to swiftly deal with bogus refuge cases without interference from the courts.
as a Czech its interesting to read what other people think of the situation. Why and how would Czech government encourage gypsys to go to Canada and apply for refugee visa? We have been judged many times on how we treat this ethnic group but is any other country treating them differently?
Following this, Jason Kenney said that ... the Czech Republic — hardly an island of persecution in Europe -- ... (can be googled). For me it seems that the detailed investigation did not confirm any claims about racism.
For Greg: Now it's your turn to show a proof of your statement about the government support.
For Canada this is an easy choice: fix your asylum process, or be denied free access to the EU.
Well Carl, that's exactly what the CDN government has been doing. You may wish to also google that the average refugee investigation, legitimate or bogus costs the Canadian taxpayer $29,000 per case. Last year there were 9400 refugee claimants from Mexico alone, the majority being bogus and cost the Canadian tax payer a whooping 272 million dollars just on investigating those cases by themselves. So how much more resources do you expect Canada to put into this? Canada took in about 10,800 legitimate refugees last year.
I agree that the entire Canadian refugee process has to be revamped as it's obviously being seriously abused. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and the government was quite right by reintroducing visa requirements on Mexico and the Czech Republic. The EU may not like it, but the reality is Canadian refugee policies are decided by the Canadian voters and not dictated by the EU.
It is true that there was ONE politican who publicly proposed that Czech gov. should by one-way tickets to Canada, but it was 10 YEARS AGO, and since then, he disappeared from the politics (the vast majority of politicans and czechs disagreed with any action like that!!!!). This one guy is a shame, but he doesn't speak for the vast majority.
Furthermore the human right standards in the Czech Republic are just fine. All criminal deeds are being investigated. But since most Romas (we don't call them gypses as it is racist) don't have want to work, don't want to study and live on socia benefits, they are tempted to go to Canada seeking higher benefits... but they really do have the same opportunities as anyone else!
but I oppose to introducing visa to Canadian tourists... but I strongly support all-EU visa for all diplomats. Since we are one EU, we have to act as one...
Hmmm...I think that is called 'hypocrisy'
BTW, Canada requires visas from both Bulgaria and Romania as well (because of Roma). So the situation with CZ is not unique.
With regards to the general comment about jobs in Canada, it is no worse then most developed western countries.
Agreed. Unfortunately it's a political hot potato. No doubt the Liberals and NDP would play up to the immigrant vote by screaming discrimination. The Conservatives are currently a minority government. They are the most likely to attempt to fix the system but would only likely do anything if they were to win a majority, which I personally don't think is likely to happen any time soon. If the Liberals get back in don't expect any great revelations from them, even with a majority.
I don't really think that Canadians might be racists, your politicians just solved a pain in a wrong fasion ;-)
How will imposing visas om Canadians help he situation?
I think Canada can legitimately refuse asylum seekers from the EU, en masse, because they are free to move within the EU to escape persecution. The EU is rich enough to deal with it's own issues.
(Notice how I got a bit of French in there for the Québécios!)
They have just found a way to trick Canada to give them benefits and Canada's response is to close the border for all Czecs, so of course EU responds.
You're one totally clueless Canuk if you really are one. What does racism have to do with this. The Roma and Mexicans are bogus refugees and if their skin colour was white or even purple with orange poka dots they'd still be bogus refugees. It's about people making false refugee claims and nothing else.
Now do you get the memo?
/me goes back to clubbing baby seals
If I were Canada any "refugee" arriving from the EU would be sent back instantly.
Blame the refugee system - G&M
EU Retaliation
Ask the Roma themselves. They are the ones claiming it. That's why they are making refugee claims for Canada. Quite obviously even if they are discriminated against by some people in the Czech Republic, they are not persecuted in the sense that would qualify them as legitimate refugees under the U.N. definition. That's why Canada has been rejecting their refugee status applications.
As for your thoughts about EU visa retaliation, I'll wager that it just ain't gonna happen. It was a photo op for Billstrom to talk tough for awhile, but the issue will quietly fade away. It's not like the EU has ever been one big happy family. LOL!! In fact they're usually divided about many issues and this should be one of them. I also can't imagine countries like the UK , Holland, etc wanting to enforce a visa requirement against Canada just because we want the Czechs to clean up their act at their end over these bogus applications.
Canada should charge the EU for the cost of all false claims, they'll stop soon enough once the bills start arriving.
The long term solution is for the EU to clean up it's act and enforce equality laws right across the board.
Also, abusing the asylum system is despicable, how many genuine cases don't get the lifeline they desperately need because of charlatans?
Canada is a free and open country, only natural that many refugees seek asylum. It's OUR job to process the visas, no matter how many demands. We just need to say no, that many more times if we're that popular. We should be flattered. Being greedy and quick to close the doors over night to CR and Mexico makes up look like clowns, once again. République de bananes!
EU has all the rights to slam theirs in our face, though as a traveller, I have already encounter number of problems with staying in Europe as a Canadian citizen, I can only imagine the nightmare in the next few months. Geeze, thanks a bundle Harper!
They've nothing big against Canada, they don't want to ban Canadians but the Canadians have started it in banning some Europeans.