Ottawa has introduced a visa requirement for Czech visitors, in response to a rise in the number of Czech Romanies applying for asylum in Canada. The Canadian immigration ministry informed Prague of the move on Monday night. The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, called Canada’s step unilateral and unfriendly, while his government reacted quickly, recalling the Czech ambassador to Canada for consultations and announcing plans to impose visa requirements on Canadian diplomats and civil

servants. The European Commission said it would not heed a Czech call for all EU states to impose a visa restriction on Canadians in solidarity with the Czech Republic. A spokesperson said the Commission regretted Canada’s decision and hoped it would be a temporary measure. In the first half of this year Czech Romanies filed 1,720 asylum applications in Canada, twice as many as for the whole of 2008. They say they suffer discrimination in their home country, a claim backed by human rights groups.
Canada introduced a visa requirement for Czechs in 1997 following an influx of asylum seekers, before dropping the measure a decade later.