Canadian visa: a sad experience

I may, in passing narrate an experience meaning no malice. An elderly relation of mine seeking visa requested for my help to accompany him to the embassy. After a long wait under a narrow canopy without any seating arrangement even for a senior citizen, or one unwell, I had to request the guard to offer him his chair which he compassionately did. His turn came to enter with relevant documents.

After a while, my relation returned with a sullen face. Tears glistening in his eyes, he narrated his awful experience. The local girl at the receiving counter finding some inadequacy in papers treated him rudely and finally threw the bunch of papers through the window. The old man sheepishly picked them up from the floor. It was too much to bear.

No denying that the business of the desk clerk was to verify relevant documents to ascertain if they were in order, but to be rude to an applicant, far less a senior citizen, who pays visa fees in thousands, doesn't reflect well on a representing country. I was later told that a similar nightmare was shared by many.

In the civilised world, embassies are mutually maintained as windows to foster friendship, trade, education and for various interaction. But highhandedness of an employee can mar a lot of goodwill. Either the visa officers are ignorant of the maltreatment meted out to applicants or they look the other way.

Will His Excellency the Canadian Ambassador to Bangladesh look into the matter?

If he does, I bet he won't be amused.