He stated that they had not agreed with Yushchenko on any legalization. And a week later, the Czech Foreign Ministry made an official statement on the matter: "The subject of bilateral talks was that the foreign ministries of the two countries should in the near future develop an agreement on the conditions of temporary stay and employment of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic, which would bring consular services closer to people - natives of Ukraine, and also ensure greater formalization of their stay in the Czech Republic," the Ukrainian head of state said on June 14 at a joint press conference with the Czech president.
However, the Czech leader disagreed with his Ukrainian counterpart. "There can be no question of global legalization. As president, I will never sign such a thing. I think other ways can be found. For example, issuing permits to stay in the country not for 90 days but for longer, or issuing work permits," Klaus later noted in an interview with Ukrainian journalists.
True, the brewing scandal seemed to be quickly hushed up. In particular, Yushchenko corrected himself, saying that following the state visit of Czech President Vaclav Klaus to Ukraine, an agreement had been reached not on the legalization of Ukrainians, but only "on the start by the foreign policy agencies of the two countries of drafting a document" that would allow partially legalizing Ukrainian citizens temporarily residing and working in that country.
However, the diplomatic conflict did not end there, since on June 22 the Czech Foreign Ministry refuted the statement of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko about the legalization in the Czech Republic of Ukrainians who had gone there to earn money. As the Ukrainian service of the "Deutsche Welle" reported, Czech Foreign Ministry representative Vit Kolarz stated that the words of the Ukrainian leader about drafting an agreement do not correspond to reality, since his ministry does not plan any such document. According to Kolarz, the problem of employment of Ukrainians, as before, will be regulated by internal instructions and quotas. According to the heads of Czech diplomacy, the legalization of employment of foreign citizens by certain international agreements would not meet the interests of the Czech Republic itself.
Let us recall that currently up to 200 thousand Ukrainians are illegally present on the territory of the Czech Republic. And in total, according to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Nina Karpacheva, from five to seven million Ukrainians work illegally abroad - mainly in Europe. The reluctance of the Czech leadership to legalize Ukrainian illegal immigrants is explained by at least two reasons. First, in less than a year, parliamentary elections are to be held in the Czech Republic. Second, the sad experience of Germany shows that for Ukrainians not only legalization but even a simple easing of the visa regime is dangerous to carry out. After all, after Germany simplified entry conditions for Ukrainians last autumn, the flow of illegal immigrants increased several times. As a result, a fairly serious diplomatic scandal broke out inside the country, which almost led to the resignation of the head of the German Foreign Ministry, Joschka Fischer.
Nevertheless, over the past couple of years Ukraine has managed to sign agreements on legalization of illegal immigrants with Portugal, Italy, Poland and Lithuania. Perhaps concessions will eventually be achieved from the Czech Republic as well, if, of course, Viktor Yushchenko actually agreed on at least something with Vaclav Klaus.