Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has announced the opening of
a German Schengen Visa application centre in the Maldives during March of the
upcoming year, 2020.
It was addressed at a joint press conference held at
the Foreign Ministry with the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to
the Maldives H.E Jörn Rohde and Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid. Both parties
expressed the burden of Maldivians travelling to other cities such as, New
Delhi, India and Colombo, Sri Lanka to obtain visas for European
countries.
Ambassador Rhode further informed that the German Embassy
will collaborate with Foreign Ministry to hold a temporary biometric visa
clinic from 3rd to 5th of February, 2020 to issue visas for Maldivians
participating in ITB Berlin, the world's largest tourism trade fair.
With the commencement of the visa application centre, travel
between Maldives and Germany is expected to increase more so than before.
Moreover, Minister informs that, discussions with VFS Global are underway to
take a proper course of action to solve the issue of Maldivians having to
travel to obtain European visas.
"Although the VFS Centre will initially cater to only
those travelling to Germany, it is our hope that other EU countries will
partner with VFS", he said.
"In the long-term, the Maldives is seeking on-arrival
visa for Maldivians travelling to EU countries".
He also noted that Maldivians are able to travel to 84 countries, including the UK, without an already issued visa. Similar arrangements have also been made with the UAE, Russia, Morocco, and Thailand with agreements in 2019, according to the Minister.
Please login to Comment