British diplomats apologize to armless artist from Kazakhstan

British Embassy in Kazakhstan has apologized to the armless artist from Karaganda Karipbek Kuyukov who was denied a visa because of lack of fingerprints, Channel 7 reports. The honorary envoy of Atom project Karipbek Kuyukov was planning to visit an anti-nuclear conference in Great Britain. He went to the visa center in Almaty, where his face and side photos were taken. According to the artist, the pictures clearly showed that he was disabled and could not possibly provide any fingerprints. However, British authorities denied him a visa, referring to insufficient quality of biometrics. So his trip to Great Britain failed. According to Kuyukov, later a representative of the Embassy called him and apologized. She promised that the next time the artist wanted to visit the United Kingdom he would get a visa with no delays. The artist said that he took the denial calmly. “It was not a personal drama to me. I was sorry that our Atom project could not take part in this conference and represent Kazakhstan,” he said. Karipbek Kuyukov was born in 1968 not far from Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. He was born armless. He draws his paintings holding a brush in his mouth or with his toes. Kuyukov’s paintings are exhibited in state and private collections in the U.S., Germany and Japan. He has been traveling around the world a lot and that was the first time he had a problem obtaining a visa.