(MENAFN- AzerNews) By
The Schengen visa-related problems of Turkish citizens, which
has turned into an ordeal recently, are on Oct. 11's agenda of the
General Assembly of The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE), reports citing .
Seeking visa facilitation to EU member states, Ankara aims to
ensure that visa decisions are taken to the judiciary and the
Schengen Information System are standardized for all countries.
Stating that a possible recommendation decision from PACE's
General Assembly would raise awareness, Ziya Altunyaldiz, a member
of the Turkish delegation to PACE, said,“There is a serious
increase in the refusal rates for all countries. It was 4 percent
for Türkiye in 2017 and 2018, but is 17 percent today.”
The“right to free movement of persons,” which is expressed in
the European Convention on Human Rights and which is one of the
main aims of the European Union, is considered a human right,
Altunyaldiz noted, warning of the“violation of human rights risk”
in case of the refusals' continuation.
When included in a recommendation, member states are required to
add it to their legislation, he noted.“After that, we propose the
establishment of a monitoring committee to determine whether these
recommendations are implemented or not.”
All Schengen countries should have standard, uniform and clear
regulations on how the process works, according to Altunyaldiz.
Türkiye also wants the visa process to proceed in a more
dialogical manner and the citizens to be able to receive at least a
part of the money they pay if their application is refused.
“If one has missing documents and information, a period of time
should be given for this and the application not be rejected
immediately. Let them complete this as they pay money,”
Altunyaldizsaid.
The authorities should get in touch with the applicants, he also
suggested, saying,“We want at least partial refunds unless the
application is justifiably denied.”
Turkish people spend some 100 million euros annually to obtain
Schengen visas, according to Ayhan Zeytinoglu, the head of the
Economic Development Foundation (İKV).
Head of the European Union Delegation to Türkiye Ambassador
Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut said earlier, the recent rejections were
mainly due to fake and incomplete documents.
Turkish nationals need to get a Schengen visa to enter EU
countries and an individual visa from the U.S. and the United
Kingdom. However, the nationals of these countries can enter
Türkiye without a visa.
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