INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL ARTISTS DENIED VISAS
KUTV
Aug 3 2008
UT
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) Almost 80 percent of 300 foreign artists
invited to attend an international youth conference in Bountiful have
been denied travel visas.
Officials from the International Organization of Folk Art said that
despite their repeated trys, including letters from Utah’s Republican
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, just 65 of the 300 invited artists have
obtained visas.
"The story I hear consistently from the people that go in to get their
visas . . . they say, ‘Why are we treated so rudely when we go in and
why does the interviewer not look at the documents we have taken in
with us?’ " said George Frandsen, North America’s regional executive
secretary of the International Organization of Folk Art.
David Donahue, spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the
State Department, says the department recognizes the importance of
cultural exchange. However, Donahue says U.S. law presumes a visa
applicant won’t return to his or her home country.
"In the end, the office is going to have to make the decision, from
the information each applicant provides them: ‘Will this particular
applicant, at the end of the conference or cultural event, return to
their home country?’ " Donahue said.
The folk art organization seeks to preserve native cultures and
languages and had ties to the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization.
This year’s first-ever youth conference is being held in conjunction
with this week’s 20th Annual Bountiful-Davis Summerfest International.
Frandsen said he had no idea the bureaucratic nightmare he would
encounter. Artists from Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Bahrain, China,
Cuba, Guyana, Iraq, Iran, Laos, North Korea and Tunisia, some of whom
had performed in the U.S. before, had visas rejected.
Mohammed Kazouz, a professor specializing in traditional Algerian
dance, and two other performers made two 1,000-mile round trips to
the capital city of Algiers to get a visa. Each time he said he was
accused to being paid to help other artists defect.
Frandsen said he tried to convince the director of a five-member
Armenian dance troupe to reapply.
"She absolutely refused," said Frandsen.
Hatch said his office has long helped the Bountiful event bring
international dancers to Utah. In 2007 he also sponsored a bill to
allow performers to obtain visas more quickly.
"Increasing demand for these visas and the heightened sensitivity to
immigration issues has made it more and more difficult to secure the
visas needed for this event," the senator said. "However, I continue
to work with the appropriate embassies to secure the necessary visas."