Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

RUSSIA: MOSCOW: DIFFICULTY IN GAINING VISAS TO TRAVEL ABROAD

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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English/Nat In Communist times, the Soviet Union was accused of human rights abuses by the West for not allowing its citizens to go abroad. Now times have changed - Russians have the freedom and money to travel but the West has changed its tune. Weeding out the Mafia gunman and economic refugee from the bona fide tourist has put many Russians in the same position they were in under Communism -- free to stay at home. This is where some Russians' overseas holidays begin and end -- at one of Moscow's foreign embassies. These people outside the British consulate are forced to queue for hours, starting at seven in the morning, in hopes of getting a visa to visit the country they have only read about in Shakespeare and Dickens. But first they must convince sceptical officials that they are not criminals or people planning to emigrate illegally. Many complain of brusque treatment. SOUNDBITE: (English) It was quite a big problem for me to get a visa because last year the queue was even bigger and the staff at the embassy weren't very friendly to me, they weren't very nice to me and they kept asking me personal questions. Questions I didn't want to answer. SUPERCAPTION: Tanya Andriyenko Outside the American embassy across town, the queues are even longer, but the exasperation among those in line is much the same. SOUNDBITE: (English) I had already a lot of problems and now I'm here for third time and I was refused for two times and I don't understand why. SUPER CAPTION: Julia Tovtonomova Once inside though, the ordeal is far from over. Overworked embassy staff work in cramped visa sections designed for the pre- perestroika era, when very few Russians could travel abroad. The British government has spent three-quarters of a million pounds (1.2 million US dollars) expanding its Moscow embassy to handle the deluge of people wanting to visit the UK. Despite the improvements, the queues are still long and the waiting room is standing room only. The situation became so acute that the British government sent Dr Liam Fox, a minister at the British Home Office, to see the problems faced by both his staff and the Russians. He says that the number of Russians visiting Britain has doubled in the last five years and denies that many Russians are turned away. Less than three in a hundred walk away without visas, he says. SOUNDBITE: (English) First of all we are actually seeking to encourage both people to come to the United Kingdom as tourists and people who want to do business with the United Kingdom. We're very keen to do business with Russia and we're trying to encourage that as much as we can and to enable us to have that good relationship we have to stop those who would be coming for other reasons who might want to come and settle in the United Kingdom without permission. That's one example. SUPER CAPTION: Doctor Liam Fox, Home Office Minister The long queues at the embassies and the chance of being refused entry has not discouraged Russians from going aboard. The travel industry in Russia is booming. Now that people have the money and the freedom to travel abroad they are doing so in droves. More than seven thousand travel agents have opened across Russia, with five thousand in Moscow alone. Ten years ago there was only one - Intourist. Super Nova is one of the many agencies sending Russians around the globe. They often hear complaints from their customers about how they are treated at other embassies. SOUNDBITE: (English) But outside there is you know what happens there is very big queue of people and it's humiliating the procedure of entering there. This is unfortunate. SUPER CAPTION: Aleksei Odynov You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/0682a91334fb3da152cd125f5bc905cd Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork