On Monday, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was denied entry to Switzerland because he was unable to present a valid visa, reported RTS. Forced to spend Tuesday night at Zurich airport, the well-known dissident artist took to social media. On Instagram, he said “I’m sleeping on a bench with a blanket tonight and waiting to be deported at 6:50 am next morning.”
The artist was not arrested, stressed a police spokesman. He was able to move freely around the airport transit area until his return to the UK.
The 67-year-old posted several photos and videos. These show that he did not have a Schengen visa and had flown to Zurich from London.
A Schengen visa allows non-EU nationals to make a short, temporary visits of up to 90 days in any 180-day period to a country in the Schengen area. The Schengen area includes all of the EU except Ireland and Cyprus, plus the non-EU nations of Norway, Liechenstein, Iceland and Switzerland. Nationals from a long list of countries, which includes China, are required to have a visa to enter the Schengen zone.
Over the years, Ai Weiwei has been openly critical of the Chinese Government’s stance on democracy and human rights. In April 2011 he was arrested at Beijing Airport and detained for 81 days without charge. The government confiscated his passport preventing him from travelling abroad. Following the return of his passport in 2015 he moved to Berlin where he lived and worked until 2019. In September 2019, he moved to Cambridge in the UK, describing Germany as having “not an open culture”. Since 2023 he has lived in Portugal.
Being resident in Schengen country, as Ai Weiwei is, would normally allow an individual to move freely within the Schengen area. However, his residence visa for Portugal had expired. Because the Portuguese government has a huge backlog of immigration cases to process it has extended the validity of current visas until 30 June 2025, according to the artist. This explanation it seems was not enough to persuade Swiss immigration to grant him entry.
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RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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