Czechs and Vietnamese to cooperate against visa problems

The Czech Republic and Vietnam are likely to set up an expert group dealing with problems related to issuing work visas to the Czech Republic. Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has announced the plan after meeting his counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung during his three-day visit to Vietnam. The expert group should deal with petty crime such as forging documents in order to prevent unregulated and unchecked immigration. The number of Vietnamese applicants for long-term visas in the Czech Republic keeps increasing. In 2006 the Foreign Ministry registered over 7,000; last year the figure rose to over 14, 000.