[LINK] "Ottawa considers visas for Hungarian visitors: report"

[rfmcdonald]

It looks like so many Roma are fleeing Hungary for Canada that the Canadian government may impose visas for visitors from Hungary, too, just after Canada did the same thing with the Czech Republic.

The number of refugee claims from Hungary has soared since last spring, according to data collected by the Immigration and Refugee Board. That's despite months of attempts by Hungarian and Canadian officials to find other ways to better manage the influx.

Numbers began to rise after Canada lifted visa requirements in the spring of 2008, when Hungary joined the European Union. Since the spring of 2009, however, the steady increase turned into a flood.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney visited Budapest last June and urged his Hungarian counterparts to take steps.

"He raised Canada's concerns about the growing number of asylum seekers going to Canada," said Alykhan Velshi, Kenney's spokesman.

Velshi said Ottawa has no plans to impose visas right now.

But he added that efforts to collaborate had not produced concrete results. "Thus far, unfortunately, the number has gone up."

Now, the Eastern European country is among the top three sources of refugee claimants. The number of claims made every month was usually between 20 and 40 immediately after the visa requirement was lifted in the spring of 2008. By the fall of 2009, the monthly total was about 200.

While numbers for the last three months of the year have not yet been made public, they are expected to show another sharp increase.

At the same time, the refugee board's approvals of the claims have plunged to zero, with many of the claimants withdrawing or abandoning their applications as they come up for processing.