The black-and-white portraits by Kyiv-based photographer Ihor Hayday, presented at the “Visas? What's the reason?” exhibition, show well-known Ukrainians who have been denied Schengen visas, which allow travel across the European Union. They include respected journalists, activists, academics and others, who have traveled to European Union countries before and never violated any visa regulations.
Irena Karpa, a writer and singer, has filled up five
passports on her travels. But in 2012, she could not attend a conference in
Berlin after being denied a Schengen visa by the Germany embassy. Apparently
they thought she would not return to Ukraine. Karpa, 32, wrote a biting reply in
her column in Ukrainska
Pravda: What makes the visa authorities think that she would “stay in Germany
illegally, leaving two children to fate, and all that I have here – for the
privilege of becoming a Gastarbeiter paid in euros?,” she sarcastically
asked.
Another portrait shows Myroslav Marynovych, a
Brezhnev-era dissident and current vice-rector of the Ukrainian
Catholic University in Lviv. In late 2009, the Polish consulate in Lviv issued
him with a visa calculated for exactly one month and thirteen days. That was
the last straw. “If they had issued it for a month and fourteen days, that
would already have been dangerous for them,” Marynovych mocked in
an open letter. (His colleague, a Ukrainian historian, was earlier
issued a three-day multiple-entry
visa by the German Embassy).
Marynovych protested by boycotting trips to the
Schengen area for a year. For him, the current EU visa regime is humiliating
and creates a new “iron curtain.”
The exhibition was organized by Europe Without Barriers, a Ukrainian NGO that advocates the waiving of visa barriers within
Europe. The current visa regime is “counter-productive for both sides,” said
Oleksandr
Sushko, an expert at the organization. It cuts off cultural
and business contacts between people in Ukraine and in EU member states.
After being launched in Kyiv in early October, the
exhibition moved to the European Parliament in November. It provides an
“alternative way of raising awareness,” Sushko argued. From Nov. 30, the
exhibition will be shown in Stockholm, Sweden.
In 2011 alone, 1.1 million Ukrainian citizens received
Schengen visas – the second biggest amount after Russia’s 5.2 million, ahead of
China, Turkey and India.
The process is getting easier, and more
and more categories of people (including relatives and civil
activists) can apply for a Schengen visa using simplified procedures.
Legislation on biometric passports, the next EU condition
for visa regime liberalization, has been passed by the Verkhovna Rada. But the
process remains stressful and unreliable – for the recognizable faces in these
portraits, and for so many others.
Annabelle Chapman can be reached at [email protected]
