A scheme forcing some UK visitors to pay a £3,000 security bond to deter them from overstaying their visa has been abandoned, the Home Office has said.
In plans which were due to be introduced this month, anyone arriving in Britain on a short term visa from one of a list of “high risk” countries would be made to put up the cash, which would be forfeit if they stayed too long.
The Home Office had proposed that visitors from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ghana and Nigeria would be made to pay the deposit for a six-month visa.
The scheme had previously been described as “highly discriminatory” by an association of Indian business leaders, and Labour MP Keith Vaz today called the apparent U-turn a “shambolic process”.
A spokesperson for the Government confirmed a Sunday Times report that the bonds would no longer be piloted, telling the newspaper: “The Government has been considering whether we pilot a bond scheme that would deter people from overstaying the visa. We have decided not to proceed.”
The idea was originally suggested by Nick Clegg – but for a £1,000 bond and only as an optional alternative if a would-be visitor’s initial visa application was turned down.
Business Secretary and fellow Lib Dem Vince Cable warned that the Conservatives had deliberately misinterpreted the idea when formulating the new policy – and Mr Clegg was forced to say he would block his own suggestion if it was applied in an “indiscriminate way”.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show; “I am absolutely not interested in a bond which becomes an indiscriminate way of clobbering people who want to come to this country, and in many respects bring great prosperity and benefits to this country,” adding that: “Of course in a coalition I can stop things.”
Labour’s Mr Vaz, who is also the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee tasked with scrutinising Home Office policy, called the bonds “unfair and discriminatory”.
“This flies in the face of the Prime Minister’s intention to attract the brightest and best to Britain and sends out the wrong message to the countries concerned,” he said.
“The Home Secretary is right to shelve the bond proposals. At the time she announced the pilot I warned her that bonds would not work.
“During this shambolic process the Home Office has managed to upset a number of foreign governments and confuse millions of potential visitors.
“This is not the way to fashion a strong and effective immigration policy.”
The news comes just two weeks after the Home Office scrapped plans for a roll-out of the “Go Home or Face Arrest” van advertising campaign, described by Theresa May as “too blunt an instrument”. - The Independent
