Hotline highlights anti-Turkish practices in EU visa issuance

The hotline, set up on Nov. 17 as a joint effort of the Economic Development Foundation (İKV), the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), received 57 complaints in its first two days of going into service. İKV President Haluk Kabalioğlu says the complaints will serve to document difficulties faced by what he referred to as “visa victims.”

Complaints shared with the hotline include a call from three academics whose invitation to a conference in Greece was declared “invalid” by the Greek Consulate. When their counterparts in Greece resent the invitation, the consulate issued them visas. But the academics missed the first two days of the three-day conference. “Even the professors in Greece were deeply surprised,” the caller said. Another complaint showed that the EU's desire to keep Turkish citizens out might easily be exploited as a means to serve the corrupt ways of petty officials and even extortion. In this case, a businessman from İstanbul, G.Y., applied for a Schengen visa to the Belgian Consulate, which redirected him to an intermediary agency.

He paid TL 45 in fees for this agency, which demanded TL 400 for a health report that it said had to be obtained from the German Hospital in İstanbul. “Why are they seeing this as a way to make profit? Why don’t they trust Turkish doctors? Do they think the Turkish public is that stupid? Why is the health report under the monopoly of a single hospital,” G.Y. asked in his complaint.

A.G., a senior executive at an İstanbul-based construction company, in his call said: “I got an invitation from the Austrian Central Bank, from which I am trying to take out a loan. I took the invitation and applied to the Austrian Consulate, which demanded 23 separate documents for my application, including an ‘international birth certificate.’ I decided to not go to Austria in protest of this. Do they think Turkey is a banana republic? The Austrian bankers expecting my arrival were also surprised.”

A businessman who called from Şanlıurfa identified by the hotline officials as M.T. was denied a visa he needed to visit a professional fair in Hanover, Germany. “They denied me a visa without citing a reason despite the presence of previous Schengen visas in my passport.”

Germany tops blacklist

Melih Özsöz, the coordinator of the project, says Germany ranks first on the list of countries most complained about, followed by France, England, Belgium and Greece. According to Özsöz, 30 of the callers complained that their visa applications were rejected. Twenty-two of these individuals were not informed of the reason why they were denied a visa. The eight people who received statements citing the reason for visa denial had to apply to translators, as these notifications were not served in Turkish. Other complaints received include the lengthiness of the list of documents needed for visa applications and questions of visa-issuers about intimate details of a person’s life -- which visa applicants feel is a violation of human rights.

Özsöz told reporters on Thursday that the data from the hotline would be relayed to the EU Commission as well as to Turkish authorities. Stating that the highest number of calls to the hotline came from İstanbul, followed by Ankara and Şanlıurfa, Özsöz said: “Honestly, we weren’t expecting such strong interest when we set the hotline up. The more people know about the hotline, the more complaints we get.” The highest number of complaints so far has been from businessmen, followed by students, academics and housewives.

The fact that there is a significant number of applicants for tourist visas shows that the EU is also being hard on Turkish tourists. Coordinator Özsöz, who pointed out that embassies and consulates are creating superfluous difficulties for applicants, said EU visa-issuers gave the most difficult time to applicants who would like to visit an EU country for business or on a family visit.

The EU visa hotline is active between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. It can be reached at 0 (212) 324 51 88 and at 0 (212) 324 51 99.