Tourist visa regulations become stricter
The Bild newspaper and Deutsche Welle radio reported that German law enforcement organs revealed a criminal network trafficking illegal migrants from Eastern Europe to work in Germany and other EU countries. According to statistics from German Federal Border Guards Service, from June 2001 to January 2002 alone over 16,000 Ukrainian, Russian, and Romanian citizens have made it into European Union countries through this network. Heads of criminal groups founded travel or trade agencies in their home countries and then applied at German consulates for entrance visas to FRG for “tourist groups” or employees of nonexistent enterprises. Future illegal workers after obtaining their visas and entering the country either stayed in FRG or, taking advantage of the fact that Germany is a part of Schengen zone, left to other EU countries: Italy, Spain, or Portugal.
Deutsche Welle’s primary version cast a shadow on the German Embassy in Ukraine, claiming ambiguously that “a report prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany details a recently revealed scheme in visa registration in the Kyiv German Embassy.” Later Deutsche Welle made public an updated version of its statement saying only that “most visas were issued to the pseudo tourism organizers by the FRG Embassy in Kyiv.” Embassy Second Secretary for the Press and Protocol Sabine Stoehr told The Day that Deutsche Welle’s information on alleged accusations against the German Embassy of being involved into some scheme dealing with illegal human trafficking to the EU countries was untrue and a gross error. However, Ms. Stoehr stated, since the radio station admitted its mistake, the question is settled. Ms. Stoehr declined to discuss possible reasons for and organizers of this attack upon the German Embassy in Kyiv, suggesting we turn to Deutsche Welle with this question. As regards Bild, which was first to spread this information, it has a reputation for sensationalism. In Ms. Stoehr’s words, the German Embassy can neither confirm nor deny the information on most illegal migrants obtaining their visas precisely in Kyiv. “Our consulate is the biggest German one in the world. We issue 300,000 visas of all kinds annually, and it is possible that the share of those abusing Germany’s confidence is rather high,” she admitted.
“The fact is that a year ago the embassy revealed that our practice for issuing visas to tourists groups is too liberal,” Ms. Stoehr told The Day. “Therefore, since October 2001 we have introduced strict rules for such groups. Their members are to come to the embassy in person, while earlier travel agencies obtained visas by lists. In addition, now visa applicants are required to present more documents, in part, a reference from their work. These documents are thoroughly examined. (Deutsche Welle reported quoting Press Secretary of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ingride von Stumm that travelers are also required to document that they have paid for the group tour before applying for visa — Ed.). As a result, the number of visas issued daily to tourist group members has dropped ten times since October 1, 2001. On the one hand, this is evidence that a year ago we were too liberal. However, now our measures are working.
“Germany is an open country and wants to preserve this status. We don’t want to close our borders for Ukrainians. We proceed from the assumption that most Ukrainian citizens coming to Germany are not going to violate the law. Those with such intent will not get a visa.”
In spite of the fact that the German Embassy in Ukraine believes the incident with Deutsche Welle settled, it will probably affect the work of the consulate in that it will examine the documents from visa applicants more thoroughly. Thus, the only practical conclusion for those going to Germany in the immediate future is to make sure that there is nothing wrong with their documents.
