The Canadian and Hungary Foreign Affairs ministers held talks in Ottawa, discussing the possibility of the re-imposition of Canadian visa requirements.
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28 January 2010
Talks on Canadian Visa requirement between Canada, Hungary
The Canadian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and his Hungarian counterpart held talks in Ottawa this week, discussing in detail a critical issue in bilateral relations between the two countries.
This critical issue is the rise in Hungarian asylum-seekers in Canada over the past months, although Canada has not made any decision on the issue of imposing a Canadian visa requirement.
Avoiding the re-imposition of Canadian visa requirements for Hungarian visitors to Canada is of common interest, Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Vilmos Szabo told the media after the meeting.
Szabo said several possible measures may produce a solution and prevent the reintroduction of the Canadian visa obligation, but he did not discuss further details.
The two ministers agreed that, apart from the Canadian visa issue, Hungarian-Canadian relations were strong and both countries’ wished to boost ties, particularly after the global financial and economic crisis.
Canada lifted the Canadian visa requirement for Hungary in the spring of 2008, but there has been a steady increase in the number of refugee claims from Hungary and in the past year the numbers have increased dramatically.
Immediately after lifting the Canadian visa requirement the number of claims made every month was usually between 20 and 40, but by the autumn of 2009 the monthly total was about 200, making Hungary one of the top three sources of refugee claimants.
The Canadian Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people with their Canadian immigration applications to the Canadian High Commission.
