BKDP for Cheaper Shengen Visas
The BKDP addressed the Deputies of the European Parliament to make Shengen visas for Belarus citizens cheaper and the procedure of getting it less complicated. - “Geographically Belarus is a European state but politically it is far away from it. Today’s cost of Shengen visa will only enlarge this distance… says the Appeal.
APPEAL TO DEPUTIES OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
DEAR DEPUTIES,
I’m addressing you on behalf of nearly 9 thousand members of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP), the only independent national trade union center functioning in Belarus.
The existing regime does everything to destroy the independent trade union movement in our country. For many years the regime is pressing our members, using intimidation and threats so as to make them leave the independent unions. The state-controlled employers and local officials do not care about the families of the workers affiliated with the free and independent unions and they are ready to dismiss any worker or do not to extend his or her short-term labor contract and leave the families without means for living. Nevertheless, the democratic unions and their members are resisting the offenses of the regime and the infringements of trade union and workers’ rights. The BKDP is trying in every possible way to educate and train the union members how to protect their own rights. A good example for them are their union partners living in European Union with whom we want to cooperate and learn much from them.
We all know that geographically Belarus is a European state but politically Belarus is far away from it. Today’s cost of the Shengen visa will only enlarge the distance. It is too expensive for ordinary workers and their families and this may cause further isolation of Belarus and their people from the civilized world. The lesser is the visa cost and the less complicated the procedure is of getting it the more people of Belarus will benefit from it. It will contribute to the expansion of contacts between our people and the people of the European Union.
We address to all of you to consider the visa issue for Belarus and to diminish further isolation of the population of this country.
On behalf of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions
Alexander Yaroshuk
Chairman of BKDP
| 11.02.2008 |
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