Britain `backing down' on bond scheme

By Thomas Abraham

LONDON, FEB. 2. A controversial scheme to require certain categories of visitors to Britain, to furnish a bond before being granted a visa, has been under discussion for more than a year, according to British Home Office officials. A spokesman, however, dismissed it as ``speculation'', that visitors from the sub continent would be targetted, or that they or their sponsors would have to pay a œ 10,000 surety before being granted a visa.

According to the spokesperson, the scheme (to require certain categories of visitors to pay a bond to ensure that they return to their countries in time) was part of a new Immigration and Asylum Bill which is currently being debated in the British Parliament. This bill provides for bond to be paid by the sponsors of visitors in the U.K., and the Home Office was planning to try out the scheme for six months in one or two visa issuing stations. But neither the location of the pilot project, nor the amount to be paid had been decided so far, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said reports in the British press had exaggerated the scope of the scheme. These reports had provoked a strong reaction from the Indian Government, as New Delhi felt it ought to have been consulted before such a scheme was announced. India also took exception to what it saw as discrimination against visitors from the Indian sub-continent.

If the British authorities had decided to try out this scheme in India, they appear to be backing down, the spokespersons added. Authorities also say the idea for a bond came in part from the ethnic community in Britain.

``The idea for a scheme of this nature originated, in part, from within the United Kingdom's ethnic minority community. Concerns were expressed that some applicants who wished to come to the U.K. to visit their family, and who had no intention of remaining here permanently, had been refused a visit visa because of doubts about their intention to leave at the end of the stay. It was suggested that a relative living in the United Kingdom should be allowed to give a financial guarantee of the visitor's intention to leave,'' the Home Office consultation document on the proposals says.

Though officially no decision has been taken on where the scheme will be tried out first, the consultation document makes it clear that Home Office would like to try it out in the sub continent. ``For the pilot study to be effective, we believe that we must use posts which regularly have a large number of applications ...and where there is a large and well established ethnic community from that country living in the UK...Taking into account that sort of case which this scheme is designed to address, a large proportion of which have historically originated in the sub continent, it would appear sensible to locate the pilot study there.''

There is pressure on the Government to crack down on illegal immigration and asylum seekers, and this scheme would appear to be part of the Government's efforts to show that it was cracking down on illegal immigrants. ``The idea behind the Bond Scheme is to give those who wish to visit the United Kingdom an additional means by which they can demonstrate their intention to leave the country at the end of their stay here,'' the document added.

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Section  : International
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