Prague - Canada will next week re-impose visas on visiting Czechs to curb an alleged influx of asylum seekers, most of them believed to be Roma, according to a report in Prague Wednesday. Canada is likely to announce on Monday that it is re-introducing visas for Czechs as of the following day, the Czech Lidove Noviny daily reported - citing unnamed sources close to recent Czech- Canadian talks on the matter.
The Canadian embassy in Prague would neither confirm nor refute the report. "Canada and the Czech Republic currently have visa-free travel," spokesman Michael Vlcek said.
More than 1,500 Czech citizens have filed for asylum in Canada since Ottawa lifted its visa requirement on Czechs in October 2007, a decade after it was re-imposed over an influx of Roma.
Most of the asylum seekers are believed to be the Czech Roma, also known as Gypsies, who claim discrimination at home.
Canadian officials have earlier accused unspecified middleman profiteers from fueling the immigration wave but have so far failed to prove such claims.
But Roma leaders have countered that the minority's middle class is fleeing in frustration over unceasing racism rather than for economic reasons.
Central Europe has seen a rise in far-right extremism and anti-Roma attacks in recent months, including firebomb attacks on Roma houses.
A group of Roma last month left Belfast after some local residents smashed their windows and threatened them, forcing the group of around 120 to take refuge in a local church.
