Written by: Press Trust of India
2 min readLondonJun 25, 2013 02:13 AM IST
First published on: Jun 25, 2013 at 02:13 AM IST
Senior politicians across party lines and Indian industry Monday called unfair and discriminatory the UK governments plans to introduce a controversial new visa bond scheme that would force visitors from countries posing high risk to pay 3,000 for a six-month visa.
The UK Home Office announced a pilot scheme under which most visitors from six high-risk Afro-Asian countries,including India,Pakistan and Nigeria,will be required to furnish a 3,000 bond for a six-month visit visa,which they will forfeit if they overstay in Britain.
Senior British Indian MP Keith Vaz pointed to a number of holes in the test scheme,which is set to run for 12 months starting this November.
The Home Secretarys Theresa May plans for bonds for visitors from certain countries are unfair and discriminatory.
This flies in the face of the Prime Ministers intention to attract the brightest and best to Britain and sends out the wrong message to the countries concerned.
I am worried that the plans could potentially alienate already settled communities in the UK, Vaz said,adding that he would question the home secretary on the issue when she appears before the parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee,which he chairs.
Lord Navnit Dholakia,deputy leader of the Liberal Democracts – the coalition partner of the UKs Conservative-led government,also raised the issue in the House of Lords. How do we ensure that there is no bias in the way decisions are taken, he questioned.
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