The Ambassador of the European Union Delegation in Türkiye, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, has once again commented on the increase in the Schengen visa rejection rates for Turkish citizens, repeating his statements that the issue is not political. The Ambassador has told the Turkish newspaper Daily Hürriyet that the allegations that the increasing rejection rates are political are not true, and the reason behind these rates is the rise in the submission of fake and incomplete documents.

The situation has left many unable to travel to visit family members and for work-related activities, including here prominent Turkish journalist Cakir Rusen, who applied for a Schengen visa for France and was rejected.

“I have to make one point very clear. We are facing practical problems that we are trying to solve; it is not a political issue. We see an increase in rejections because we see more forged documents and incomplete applications,” he told the newspaper.

According to the Ambassador, Schengen embassies and consulates have been facing a spike in the number of applications received after the removal of the Coronavirus restrictions, not only in Türkiye but in the whole world.

As a result, he claims, the number of applications has caused the prolongation of visa processing and waiting times, thus causing problems not only for travellers but also for the staff of the embassies, who have to deal with this backlog of visa applications. Turkish authorities have harshly criticized the increasing rejection rates, even submitting a report to the Council of the European Union in a bid to resolve the issue. The report is expected to be discussed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) General Assembly next month.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu had previously accused the EU of deliberately complicating and prolonging the visa procedures for Turkish nationals for political reasons.

However, at the end of August, Ambassador Meyer-Landrut had also noted that the delay in the processing of visa applications and the increase in visa rejections are not political or exclusive to Turkish citizens. He had also called the rejection rates“slightly above the world average”.