What problems are expected for middle eastern attendees to Cape Town? What countries
passports are expected to have problems?
Cheers,
Peter
From: Wikimania-l [mailto:wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Gnangarra
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2017 12:14 PM
To: Wikimania general list (open subscription)
Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections
These issues are a symptom of the closed processes that have occurred firstly with
Montreal and next year with middle eastern attendees to Cape Town . Acknowledging that
the change was because of the amount effort put in by unsuccessful bidders was said to be
wasted its showing that some things need to be opened for community discussion before
decisions are made.
That it may be better for the WMF to require applicants to first obtain a visa before
being confirmed for the scholarships in the future. Perth/Australia is another place that
visas for attendees wouldnt have been a big issue.
On 22 June 2017 at 17:43, cs <cs(a)edubkk.org> wrote:
That’s one of the reasons why I proposed Bangkok, Thailand, for 2019 - apart from its
extremely tolerant social cultures and very low cost, while being a very modern
hi-tech city easily accessible by direct flights from most parts of the world. Almost
everyone can enter the country for at least 15 days without even a visa. Thailand
only makes it difficult for people wanting to stay longer (years) in the country on the
pretext of being tourists.
It’s a shame for the visa refusals, but perhaps this will open up the possibility to some
refused scholarship applications.
Kudpung.
On 22Jun, 2017, at 16:23, Bodhisattwa Mandal <bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
The main topic of discussion among the scholarship recipients from global south this month
is the high visa rejection rate by Canadian embassies from these countries.
This year, we had 7 scholarship recipients from Bengali community, 4 from India and 3 from
Bangladesh. Already 3 out of 4 scholarship recipients from Indian part of the communities
got their visa rejected, others are waiting. Although I am hoping for the best for all the
scholarship recipients, but may be news of more rejections are coming soon.
Wikimania should be organised in a visa friendly country, and not in those countries where
global south citizens are not allowed to enter even for a 6-days conference. Otherwise, a
global community is not truly presented.
Best wishes,
Bodhisattwa
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