The British Embassy had told me that in order to apply for a visa I must fill in a form and bring certificates, confirming that I was gainfully employed and what my income was and to bring copies of my personal bank account statements for the past three months as well as a letter of invitation to show that the expenses of my stay would be paid for by the university.

In the queue before me there was a Slovak girl with a problem similar to mine. She was also invited to a study stay in Britain. She did not know that the British had imposed a visa regime on Slovakia, so she travelled, at considerable expense, to Dover by coach. On arrival there, she was refused entry to Britain. So she returned to to the Czech Republic and went to the British Embassy. There, she met with delays. She was told that it would take some two to three weeks for the Embassy to receive information from Dover about her. She therefore applied for a visa, but was told that that would take three more weeks. She paid the visa fee of 2000 Czech crowns (GBP 40 pounds, the average pay in Slovakia is approximately GBP 150 per month) and waited.

For instance, my income, does the Embassy want the sum before or after tax?

Answer: It does not matter, just write something there.

Question: What sum of money will I have at my disposal during my stay in Britain? The sponsor will pay for my accomodation and transport and will give me some cash as well, how should I itemise it?

Answer: it does not matter, just write something.

The situation of the Romanies in Slovakia is bad. The Slovak state is incapable of reacting to it properly - it does not have sufficient strength and resources to tackle this problem. I have however never learnt from any newspapers how many applicants for asylum in Britain really come from Slovakia and how many of them are only formally Slovak. How many applicants for asylum come from the Czech Republic, after they had acquired Slovak citizenship because they no longer could tolerate the Czech pressure. It is well known, after all, that the Czech state refused to recognize its Romanies as Czech citizens for a long time.

The previous Czech governments, led by Klaus's Civic Democratic Party, adopted a citizenship law according to which only those who had acquired permanent residence in Czechoslovakia and had a clean criminal register could apply for Czech citizenship. The rest of the people became foreigners in the Czech Republic overnight and had to overcome various financial and bureaucratic obstacles. This did not only concern the Romanies but also many students and employees who had had temporary residence in the Czech Republic.

Many of these tens of thousands of people lost the social rights which belong to normal citizens in a state. They lost their right to vote and they had to register in a new way, in a much more complicated procedure than before. Once a High Court judge told me that he had had great difficulties in trying to obtain Czech citizenship, although he managed to complete the process in the end. But what about people who do not have legal qualifications to deal with all the obstacles the Czech state throws at them?

Why am I describing this? According to my information at least half of the Romanies holding Slovak passports who are currently applying for political asylum in Britain, come from the Czech Republic. Britain rejects these applicants for asylum. A few scuffles occured in Dover and so Britain imposed a visa regime on Slovakia. Is it logical and ethical for Britain to impose a visa regime on a country, from which people are fleeing from racism? Czech and Slovak racism against Romanies is well known. It is necessary to do away with it. The European Union demands this in the strongest terms. Why, however, is Britain, a member of EU, adopting racist attitudes towards these applicants?

Surely it is logical that the oppressed ethnic group, the Romanies, will defend itself against oppression by attempting to emigrate, exactly the same way as citizens of East European countries reacted against communist oppresion before 1989. Surely Great Britain and other countries of the European Union would deal a serious blow to Czech and Slovak racism if the Western countries granted asylum to some of the Romany asylum seekers.

Instead, hypocritically, Britain insists that most applicants are "economic" migrants and so the British authorities must defend themselves by imposing a visa regime on all the citizens of Slovakia.

This British attitude actually encourages Czech and Slovak racism. Most Czechs and Slovaks will see themselves justified in their racist attitudes because they see them confirmed by the racist reactions from Great Britain.

I will of course continue to hold the view that the Czech Republic has lost the support of hundreds of students and employees from the Slovak Republic who could have settled in Prague and put in their intellectual potential. Since they were refused their permanent residence permits, they moved on. It is well known that as a result of the difficulties in Slovakia, many Slovaks are now leaving the country, just as the Romanies. When even our home is not good to us, why not look for a better place? But, maybe, even Britain is not an example of a better place.