M A I N   N E W S

special to the tribune
UK set to go ahead with controversial visa bond
* Scheme due to start in November
* Will affect some but not all visitors
Shyam Bhatia in London

Indian visitors to the UK could soon be asked to post a £3,000 (Rs 2.7 lakh) bond before they are granted a six- month visa to the UK.

The pilot scheme, which is due to start this coming November, will affect some but not all visitors from India, Nigeria, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It aims at reducing pressure on the National Health Service which currently offers anyone in the UK free access to doctors and hospitals.

In London, a Home Office spokesman said: “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.”

"We are planning a pilot that focuses on those who overstay and examines a couple of ways of applying bonds. The pilot will apply to visitors' visas but if the scheme is successful we would like to be able to apply it on an intelligence-led basis on any visa route and any country,” said the spokesman.

Sources in London stress that only so-called “high-risk” visitors will be asked to pay the bond which will be refunded after they return to their home countries. The scheme will not apply to all 500,000 visitors from the six Commonwealth countries who are estimated to visit the UK annually, although it is visitors from these countries who are charged with comparatively high levels of abuse by staying on long after their visas expire.

The planned scheme was first proposed earlier this year, but then postponed after an outcry among the affected Commonwealth countries. India in particular was concerned by its implications and questions were raised in both New Delhi and London about what impact it might have on bilateral trade. There were also mutterings in New Delhi at the time about ‘reciprocity’ if the scheme goes ahead.

Apart from India, Nigeria and Ghana are the other Commonwealth countries that take a particularly dim view about the bond, asking London to reconsider its policy.

Meanwhile the Home Office, which will be charged with implementing the cash bond scheme, has been involved with another controversial scheme after sending vans around London telling illegal immigrants to “go home.”

The vans carry the message: ‘In the UK illegally ? Go home or face arrest.’ But a spokesman for the Lib Dem members of the ruling coalition government criticised the posters as ‘distasteful’ and ‘ineffective.’

The scheme

To prevent overstaying, ‘high-risk’ visitors will be asked to pay a £3,000 (Rs 2.7 lakh) bond before they are granted a six- month visa to the UK. The bond money will be refunded after they return to their home countries

Those who will get hit

• Visitors from India, Nigeria, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh
• The scheme will not apply to all 500,000 visitors from these six Commonwealth countries who are estimated to visit the UK annually.