M A I N   N E W S

Cops use force against UK visa applicants
Bipin Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 29
The police had to be called in to control the hundreds of students who had lined up at the local UK visa application centre here to seek visas in a bid to beat the October 1 deadline when new and stricter visa guidelines come into effect. Compounding their problems were the string of holidays during the last week of September.

According to eyewitnesses, security guards at the UK Border Agency’s visa centre shut the main entrance after noon, infuriating the anxious applicants waiting outside for their turn.

Things took a turn for the worse when some female applicants reportedly fainted due to the sweltering heat and suffocation, and were later taken to a local hospital for treatment. The irate crowd in the small compound then went berserk and raised slogans outside the office of the agency operating the visa centre, VFS Global Service Pvt Ltd.

The district administration had to call in the police to control the situation. Led by City-I DSP Gaganjit Singh the cops reportedly resorted to a “mild lathi charge” to disperse the protesters. The DSP, however, denied this.

The agency’s officials ordered the shutters of the main gate of the compound to be pulled down. A security guard told The Tribune team: “The officer concerned doesn’t want to talk to you and has ordered me to bar anyone from entering the compound of the centre”.

Narrating her woes, Sarabjit Kaur, an applicant from Hoshiarpur, said she was shocked to know the agency had closed the doors and were not receiving any more visa applications.

Another applicant, Balkar Singh, who had come from Ferozpur, said he had been camping outside the visa centre since Monday night and was sorely disappointed when it stopped receiving applications this morning. Amritpal Singh, a resident of Kapurthala, said he was seeking a British visa after some ‘immigration consultants’ told him now was the right time as clearing the IELTS test was not mandatory for UK visa seekers.

Closure a ‘protective step’

VFS Global Service, the agency to whom the UK Border Agency has outsourced processing of visa applications, said it had made it on its official website that the visa application centers in India would remain closed today. Website had also advised applicants to postpone visit to the centers in view of the huge rush.