The topic of the negotiations was the consular and legal issues related to visa-free regime between Ukraine and Israel.
Ukrainian Consular Service is very concerned about the number of unwarranted refusals of entry to Israel for Ukrainian citizens, as well as the biased attitude to the Ukrainians from the Israeli border officials. The Adviser for Consular Affairs of the Ukrainian Embassy in Tel Aviv Anatoliy Pisarevskiy admitted: "This situation harms the normal and conventional execution of the agreement on visa requirements cancellation. A person must have some confidence that if he buys a ticket and books a hotel when comes to Israel, he will spend time in a planned way. In 90% of cases visa still guarantees that a person will enter Israel after an interview with the consul but nevertheless the last word rests with border guards. The current situation makes the visa-free regime a lottery. It is not visa-free regime. "
This issue is very painful and urgent. In July I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Tourism of Israel Yariv Levin. The issue of an attitude towards Ukrainian tourists at border crossing of Israel has become the main topic of our meeting. I personally have heard dozens of stories from people who were treated extremely incorrect and refused entry without any existing reasons and explanations. Tourists who just landed had to wait for several hours in stuffy rooms even without the possibility of drinking a glass of water. There were precedents when after such waiting tourists felt bad and hadn’t received medical aid.
Such treatment is unacceptable. According to the embassy data during 2014 about 2,800 citizens of Ukraine were refused entrance into Israel. This is a significant damage to the development of tourism between the two countries since these people will be a source of negative advertisement. It is unlikely that they will come to Israel once again as tourists and will beguile their friends out of such trip.
This problem is to be solved as soon as possible. During the meeting between representatives of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and Israel, the Israeli party promised to check all existing violations and eliminate difficulties of the border and immigration controls procedure. I want to believe that the promise will be fulfilled in the nearest future.
Photo: Honorary Consul of Israel in the Western region of Ukraine Oleg Vyshniakov and Minister of Tourism of Israel Yariv Levin.
http://izrus.co.il/dvuhstoronka/article/2015-10-11/29033.html
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