Despite stringent immigration laws that have resulted in tight visa rules, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her office to ease bottlenecks.
BERLIN: There’s good news for prospective visitors to Germany. Despite stringent immigration laws that have resulted in an overall tightening of visa rules, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked her office to ease bottlenecks for Indians.
Her attention was drawn to the problems faced by Indian visa seekers at Sunday’s joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She looked startled when a journalist asked her why visa rules are so strict for Indians when Germany is looking to boost trade and investment ties with India. “I was not aware that there is any problem,” she said. But after the press conference, she apparently pulled up her staff officers and asked them why she was not briefed on this issue. The German side assured Indian officials later that the visa issue will be addressed urgently.
Apart from the general fiat resulting in a stricter visa regime, India has been on the German radar after a group of artists sent by ICCR to Germany did a disappearing act in this country. They were tracked down and deported to India, resulting in the ongoing CBI case against the former ICCR director, Rakesh Kumar. This time, a dance troupe led by Aditi Mangaldass, which was coming to Germany to perform at the inaugural function of the Hannover Trade Fair, ran into serious problems over visas. It took one month for the troupe to get its visas. And the visas were issued to them the day before they were due to board the plane for Germany.
The Ministry of External Affairs had to intervene strongly on the troupe’s behalf to point out that the dancers and musicians were coming to perform at a function that was going to be attended by none less than the Indian Prime Minister and the German Chancellor.
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