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UK VISA: NIGERIANS BEGIN PAYMENT OF £3,000 BOND IN NOVEMBER

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Outcry
against its £3,000 tourist’s visa bond notwithstanding, Britain will commence the scheme in the six listed
Commonwealth countries in November; Financial Times report quoted the Home Office as saying.
The Commonwealth countries to be affected by the
policy which was announced in June are Nigeria, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The affected countries are considered to be source
of “high risk” tourists to the UK.
Some visitors from the six countries, under the
scheme, will be asked to pay a £3,000 cash bond in return for visitor visas
that allow them to stay in the UK for up to six months.
According to official data, these six countries
accounted for more than half a million visa applications in 2012.There have been outpours of anger by governments of
the affected countries, especially Nigeria and India against the policy.

The Federal Government, through the Foreign Affairs
minister, Olugbenga Ashiru, had in June expressed “the strong displeasure of
the government and people of Nigeria” over the “discriminatory” policy.
Ashiru warned British High Commissioner Andrew
Pocock at a meeting in the minister’s office in Abuja, barely 24 hours after
the policy was announced, that the move would “definitely negate” the two country’s
commitment to double trade by 2014.
The minister told the British diplomat that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, had “a responsibility
to take appropriate measures to protect the interest of Nigerians who may be
affected by the proposed policy, if finally introduced.”


The British High Commission in Nigeria after the meeting issued a statement quoting
Pocock as saying that his government planned to undertake “a very small scale
trial of the use of financial bonds as a way of tackling abuse in the
immigration system (which occurs when some people overstay their visa terms).”
He said that the details of the pilot scheme were
still being worked out and if it goes ahead in Nigeria, it would affect only a very small number of
the “highest risk” visitors.
“The vast majority would not be required to pay a
bond. Those paying bonds would receive the bond back, if they abided by the
terms of their visa,” he said.
More than 180, 000 Nigerians apply to visit Britain each year and about 70 percent or around 125,
000 of these applicants are successful, he said.

Ashiru said on Sunday that the UK embassy had not communicated to his office the
plan to commence the bond scheme.
““They have not communicated with me,” the minister
said when The PUNCH sought his reaction to the latest development.
In the UK, luxury goods retailers have denounced the plan
as an “insulting deterrent” to wealthy tourists, which will hit sales and
damage London’s reputation.
They are urging the government to drop the pilot,
saying the restrictions will damage their business if Commonwealth tourists –
particularly Nigerians, now the sixth biggest spenders on luxury goods in the UK – are put off.

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