Deputy foreign minister holds talks on visa in Canada

Avoiding the re-imposition of visa requirements for Hungarian visitors to Canada is of common interest, Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Vilmos Szabo told MTI after talks in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Szabo and Canada’s deputy minister of foreign affairs and immigration discussed in detail “the critical issue re-emerging in bilateral relations”, namely the rise of Hungarian asylum-seekers in Canada over the past few months.

Canada has not made any decision on the issue but the growing flood of refugee applicants “poses a problem,” the Canadian official said.

Szabo, who paid a one-day visit to Ottawa after talks in Washington, said several possible measures are available which may produce a solution and prevent the reintroduction of visa obligation, but he did not disclose further details.

He said the Hungarian-Canadian working committee would hold its third session in Budapest in early February to review the situation. The Hungarian government, he said, would ask Roma leaders to participate in coordination.

The two officials agreed in Ottawa that, apart from the visa issue, Hungarian-Canadian relations were problem-free and it would lie in the interest of both countries to boost ties, particularly after the global financial and economic crisis.

The Canadian Press news agency reported in early January that Canada had lifted the visa requirement for Hungary in the spring of 2008. Since then there has been a steady increase in the number of refugee claims from Hungary. In the past year the numbers have increased dramatically, especially among the country’s Roma community.

The number of claims made every month was usually between 20 and 40 immediately after lifting the visa requirement. By the autumn of 2009, the monthly total was about 200, making Hungary one of the top three sources of refugee claimants, the agency said.