and other countries whose nationals are deemed to pose a "high risk"
of immigration abuse to provide a cash bond before they can enter the
country, a report said Sunday.
The Sunday Timesnewspaper said thatfrom November, a pilot scheme would
target visitors from those three countries plus Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
and Ghana.
Visitors aged 18 and over would be forced to hand over £3,000 ($4,600,
3,500 euros) from November for a six-month visit visa.
They will forfeit the money if they overstay in Britain after their
visa has expired.
Initially the scheme will target hundreds of visitors, but the plan is
to extend it to several thousand, according tothe broadsheet's
front-page report.
The weekly paper said the move by Home Secretary Theresa May is
designed to show that Prime Minister David Cameron's ConservativeParty
is serious about cutting immigration and abuses of thesystem.
The populist United Kingdom Independence Party has been encroaching on
the Conservatives' traditional corevote in recent months.
Cameron wants annual net migration down below 100,000 by 2015.
"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," May was quoted as saying.
"In the long run we're interested in a system of bonds that deters
overstaying and recovers costs if a foreignnational has used our
public services."
A Home Office official said the six countries highlighted were those
with "the most significant risk of abuse".
Last year 296,000 people granted six-month visas were from India,
101,000 from Nigeria, 53,000 from Pakistan and 14,000 each were from
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
No comments:
Post a Comment