Romanians will need visas as from October on their trips to the Czech Republic as the government, acting on a proposal by the Interior Ministry, suspended the effectiveness of the Czech-Romanian treaty on visa-free relations as from October 1, according to government spokesman Libor Roucek.
“The reason is a sharp increase in Romanian asylum seekers,” he added. The measure does not apply to holders of Romanian diplomatic or service passports and it will not affect Romanian citizens already on Czech territory either, Roucek said.
According to the Czech Interior Ministry’s latest data, Romanian headed the list of refugees trying to illegally cross the Czech border last year. There were 4,281 of them out of a total o f 32,720.