Brno - Czech ombudsman, the official in charge of representing the interests of the public against bureaucratic abuse, has been criticizing Czech authorities dealing with Vietnamese applications for Czech visa.
There is a high demand for Czech visa in Vietnam, as many Vietnamese allegedly regard the Czech Republic as a "promised land".
Czech businesses are interested in hiring Vietnamese workers and the number of the latter in the Czech Republic is growing very fast.
By the end of 2006 there were around 700 of these officially hired employees in the country whereas by the end of last year they were 5,500. In many companies Vietnamese are replacing workers from other foreign countries.
In total, there are currently more than 40 thousand Vietnamese people living and working in the Czech Republic.
But it is not really easy for the Vietnamese to be allowed into the Czech Republic.
Checking on the visa system
While checking on the procedures of granting visas at the Czech Embassy in Hanoi, Ombusdman Otakar Motejl claims that the system introduced by the Czech Embassy opens room for corruption.
The officials at the embassy are recording interviews with individual applicants. These are then used by Czech Immigration Police during the decision process about whether or not to grant the visa.
But the applicants have no opportunity to check or sign the documents as submitted to the authorities.
On top of that, there have been several reports claiming bribes were linked to issuing visas for Vietnamese people.
The fact that the applicants have no way of finding out what the officials at the embassy have written about them is wrong, says Mr Motejl.
"The ombudsman thinks there is no controlling mechanism allowing checking the accurateness of the records in relation to the real content of application interviews.
The absence of such a control is then projected to the Immigration Police´s decision to whether or not to grant the visa," Mr Motejl wrote in his report for the MPs.
Ministry: We have to protect ourselves
Mr Motejl wants a change in the practice. He says visa applicants should be given opportunity to sign the record about their interview and to confirm they agree with the document's content.
But the Foreign Ministry is not planning any changes.
"Nobody is entitled to a visa by law. That's why administrative rules cannot be applied in this case. Visa politics allow Czech state to regulate influx of foreigners into the country. That's why visas and connected procedures are not and could not be enforced by a foreign national," the ministry's spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalová told Aktuálně.cz.
Should the administrative rules be applied and should the applicants be able to find out what the records say about them, Czech Republic could not apply its security and foreign policy criteria when granting visas.
Moreover, a change in the system would not work in practice, the ministry claims. "The embassy officials speak mostly through interpreters, writing down data in their mother tongue. It would necessarily require translating their notes into Vietnamese for the applicant to be able to check them over," Ms Opletalová explains.
Visa for $1500?
Last year, there was a long queue of visa applicants outside the Czech Embassy in Hanoi every day, evidence of an enormous interest to move to the Czech Republic.
Some applicants have been complaining about demeaning conditions and corruption surrounding visa application process. Both media and internet discussion sites reported the going price for getting Czech visa as 1500 dollars.
Foreign Ministry checked the facts and claims allegations about corruption are part of a pressure campaign aimed at forcing the embassy to drop its current valid official procedures.
