Canada PM warns of Czech asylum seekers

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, May 7 (UPI) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned his country will have to react in some way if the rising number of Czech asylum seekers is not curbed.

Harper raised the issue in talks with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek Wednesday in Prague on the sidelines of an EU-Canada meeting, Prague radio reported.

Harper said the Czech Republic violated conditions under which Canada has issued free entry visas since 2007, Topolanek told reporters in Prague.

If there is no improvement in cutting down the number of asylum seekers, Canada would have to react, Topolanek quoted Harper as saying. He did not detail threatened Canadian action.

More than 650 Czech nationals, many of them gypsies, applied for asylum in Canada between January and March, the report said.