Toronto, July 15 - The influx of Indian-origin Roma people or gypsies from the Czech Republic into Canada as refugees has forced the government here to impose visa restrictions on visitors from the European country.

Canada dropped visa requirements for the Czech Republic, a European Union member, in 2007. Since then, the number of the Roma people seeking refugee status in Canada has jumped sharply.

Government figures say there were just five cases of Roma refugee claimants till 2006. But since, this number has risen to 3,000.

Called gypsies or Romanies in Europe, the Roma people are scattered across eastern and central Europe after migrating from India about a thousand years ago. They have been persecuted in almost all European countries for their ethnicity and culture.

When Czechoslovakia broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, the Roma people were denied citizenship by the either of the two new-born nations.

The discrimination forced many of them to seek asylum in Canada. But Canadian officials have reported fraudulent claims by them.