Theresa May, the British home secretary has announced that visitors from 'high risk' countries in Africa and Asia will
have to pay a £3,000 cash bond to enter Britain.
This pilot scheme, introduced by Home Secretary Theresa May,
will target hundreds of people coming to Britain on six-month visit visas from
the following ‘high Risk’ countries:- India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Pilot scheme will later be extended to cover work permits
and student visas
Continue to find out why??
The number coming to live in Britain fell by 74,000 in the 12 months to June last year as curbs on students and workers from outside Europe began to bite.
‘We have reviewed all migration routes to the UK and have put in place measures to reduce immigration,’ said a source close to the Home Secretary when the plans were unveiled.
‘The latest statistics are encouraging and show that net migration continues to fall. But our work is not complete.’
The bonds could face criticism for not targeting the 'white Commonwealth', the Sunday Times suggested, while Canada rejected a similar scheme on grounds of discrimination against immigrants.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, has previously warned that such bonds will ‘antagonise settled communities in Britain and enrage our allies such as India’
Visitors from 'high risk' countries in Africa and Asia will
have to put up a £3,000 cash bond to enter Britain.
Money realised from this scheme will be kept by the Government
if visitors do not return home by the time their visas expire.
A pilot scheme, introduced by Home Secretary Theresa May,
will target hundreds of people coming to Britain on six-month visit visas from
India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The countries have been picked for the high number of visa
applications and what the Government sees as relatively high levels of
immigration abuse and fraud, reports the Sunday Times.
The bonds, to be introduced from November, will only apply
to non-EU migrants, otherwise they would fall foul of European rights to free
movement.
'This is the next step in making sure our immigration system
is more selective, bringing down net migration from the hundreds of thousands
to the tens of thousands while still welcoming the brightest and the best to
Britain,' Mrs May told the Sunday Times.
'In the long run we’re interested in a system of bonds that
deters overstaying and recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public
services.'
A second scheme will cover countries such as Kenya, the
newspaper reports, which are considered to be lower-risk because immigration
officials have fewer doubts about migrants' plans to return home.
About 2.2million people are granted visas to enter Britain
every year. Last year 296,000 people from India were granted six-month visas,
as were 101,000 from Nigeria, 53,000 from Pakistan and 14,000 a piece from
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Mrs May's plans, revealed by the Daily Mail in March, will
be expanded to cover thousands of visa applicants and extended to work and
student permits as well as tourists.
The Home Secretary plans to reduce annual net migration to
under 100,000 by 2015.
Official figures earlier this year showed that the
Government’s squeeze on entrants from outside the EU had pushed immigration
into Britain to its lowest level in nearly a decade.
The controversial move by the home secretary, Theresa May,
to introduce the Australian-style system reflects her determination to show
that the Tories are serious about cutting immigration and curbing abuses.
Theresa May |
Must we go to d Uk? Abeg!
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