OUTCRY against its £3,000 tourists visa bond
notwithstanding, Britain will commence the scheme in the six listed
Commonwealth countries in November, Financial Times report quoted the
Home Office as saying.
The
Commonwealth countries to be affected by the policy which was announced
in June are Nigeria, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The affected countries are considered to be source of “high risk” tourists to the UK.
Some visitors from the six countries, under the scheme, will be asked
to pay a £3,000 cash bond in return for visitor visas that allow them to
stay in the UK for up to six months.
According to official data, these six countries accounted for more than half a million visa applications in 2012.
There have been outpours of anger by governments of the affected countries, especially Nigeria and India against the policy.
A protest in India last month forced the British Prime Minister David
Cameron to declare that final decision had not been taken on the policy,
while the Nigerian government asked Britain to renounce the scheme.
The Federal Government, through the Foreign Affairs minister, Olugbenga
Ashiru, had in June expressed “the strong displeasure of the
government and people of Nigeria” over the “discriminatory” policy.
Ashiru warned British High Commissioner Andrew Pocock at a meeting in
the minister’s office in Abuja, barely 24 hours after the policy was
announced, that the move would “definitely negate” the two country’s
commitment to double trade by 2014.
The minister told the British
diplomat that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, had “a
responsibility to take appropriate measures to protect the interest of
Nigerians who may be affected by the proposed policy, if finally
introduced.”
The British High Commission in Nigeria after the
meeting issued a statement quoting Pocock as saying that his government
planned to undertake “a very small scale trial of the use of financial
bonds as a way of tackling abuse in the immigration system (which occurs
when some people overstay their visa terms).”
He said that the
details of the pilot scheme were still being worked out and if it goes
ahead in Nigeria, it would affect only a very small number of the
“highest risk” visitors.
“The vast majority would not be required to
pay a bond. Those paying bonds would receive the bond back, if they
abided by the terms of their visa,” he said.
More than 180, 000
Nigerians apply to visit Britain each year and about 70 percent or
around 125, 000 of these applicants are successful, he said.
A Home Office official said the six countries highlighted were those with “the most significant risk of abuse”
The Home Office said on Friday that only individuals deemed “high-risk”
would be asked to pay the bond. But some officials admits that the mere
mention of a bond would be enough to deter visitors.
“In the long
run, we are interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and
recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public services,” an
unnamed Home Office official said.
Ashiru said on Sunday that the UK embassy had not communicated to his office the plan to commence the bond scheme.
““They have not communicated with me,” the minister said when The PUNCH sought his reaction to the latest development.
In the UK, luxury goods retailers have denounced the plan as an
“insulting deterrent” to wealthy tourists, which will hit sales and
damage London’s reputation.
They are urging the government to drop
the pilot, saying the restrictions will damage their business if
Commonwealth tourists – particularly Nigerians, now the sixth biggest
spenders on luxury goods in the UK – are put off.
“It’s embarrassing
that our country would consider these measures against visitors who
spend so much in our stores,” Managing Director of Harrods, Michael
Ward, said .
“There seems to be a deeply frustrating attitude in
Westminster that they should do whatever they can to actively prevent
people coming to the UK,” Ward added.
Harrods is reputed to be the biggest department store in Europe, occupying a five-acre site in the royal precinct in London
Source; Punch
