Even though I knew the UK will come up with a drastic measure to be able to control its immigration problems, I never thought of such a put off-scheme.
According to UK’s Home Secretary, visitors from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other ‘high risk’ countries in Asia and Africa will be forced to pay £3,000 cash bond before they enter UK
And when they over stay, they will lose the money to the UK government.
The scheme will be piloted from November, for people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana. They are being targeted because of the high volume of visitor visa applications and relatively high levels of abuse…
According to MailOnline;
Tens of thousands of visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria will be forced to pay a £3,000 bond to be allowed to enter Britain.
They will only get the money back once they leave the country in a bid to end abuse of the visa system.
Home Secretary Theresa May said the intention was to make the immigration system more ‘selective’ and deter people from ‘overstaying’ once their visitor visa has expired. In the long-term, she hopes to extend the Australian-style bond scheme to also include foreign workers and students.
The idea will be welcomed by backbench Tory MPs, who have been urging the government to take a tougher line on immigration to combat the threat of UKIP.
But it is likely to face legal challenges on the grounds that – because it targets only people from so-called ‘high risk’ countries – it is discriminatory.
There are also fears it may lead to countries such as India making British tourists pay a similar bond.
The scheme will be piloted from November, for people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana. They are being targeted because of the high volume of visitor visa applications and relatively high levels of abuse.
Mrs May said: ‘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.’
Immigration bonds have been repeatedly considered by ministers over the years, but have never been successfully introduced.
Labour abandoned its own plans for a £1,000 bond in 2008 amid an outcry from migrant rights groups.
They claim the policy is discriminatory as it does not apply to people from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the idea was ‘unworkable’ and ‘impractical’.
Mr Vaz, an ex-Foreign Office minister, claimed it would not deter people from trying to stay on after their visas ended, and said the targeted countries would be ‘likely to retaliate’.
The policy has the backing of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg. He suggested the introduction of bonds in March, though was proposing the level should be fixed at £1,000.
The move will require a change in the immigration rules but not a vote by MPs.
Home Secretary Theresa May needs to shut her old raggedy ass up, this want stop these countries from coming here, but £3000 is allot of money in Ghana that’s almost 9,325 new ghs with that money I believe he/she will stay there and make it
it will rather make people overstay their visit.
If an average worker struggles to get 10,000 ghc to go….do you think he’ll come back after all he went through to get that kind of money.
@Argument, question is, is the £3000 pounds only for short stay? When the money is returned… will they add interest?
@Miyagi Oheneba Atopahene,haha true.if they add interest..i’ll be fine with it.
If anyone has 10 000 ghc,they should rather use it to start a business in Ghana.
No need going through all this. Uk is not heaven.
where on earth are some people going to get that amount of money and i can agree more with people over here that when some one struggle to bring that money just to get the visa am not sure he or she will come back and that will even contribute more overstaying and why do they want to cut Africa out, is because they think we are poor, isnt that discriminating? correct me if am wrong, Africa is never a poor place and we proud to be African, Peace
Our Error, Julor president went to sign on behalf of Ghana while other countries deiced not to.