<<Print>>

The British High Commission in Accra says no final decision has yet been made to use financial bonds to tackle abuse of the immigration system by visitors to the United Kingdom A statement issued in Accra yesterday by the High Commission explained that the UK Government announced its intention to consider trialling the use of financial bonds as a way of tackling abuse in the immigration system some time ago. It said since then, discussions had been ongoing within the UK Government about how and when to implement the proposed trial. The details of the policy, according to the statement, were still being finalised and that Ghana was being considered as a pilot country, along with many other nations. �But no final decision has yet been made�. �In the event that the pilot scheme goes ahead, the vast majority of visitors would be processed in the normal way. Only a very small number of the highest risk visitors would be required to pay a bond, and the bond would be refunded once the visitor returns home. �The scheme would be limited to a select group of countries for the pilot only. If the pilot were successful, the full scheme would be rolled-out worldwide, and high-risk visitors of all nationalities would be required to pay a bond. A report in the Daily Graphic yesterday said from November, this year, Ghanaians travelling to the UK would be required to pay 3,000 pounds (GH�9,000) as bond before entering the country. They would only get the money back once they leave the country, in a bid to end abuse of the visa system. Visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria, have also been affected by the new regulation announced by the UK Home Secretary, Theresa May. A pilot scheme, according to the Guardian newspaper, will be rolled out by the UK government in November, this year, where visitors from the six countries that have been described as �high risk� and Asian countries would be charged to enter the country. According to Ms May, the intention is to make the immigration system more �selective� and deter people from �overstaying� once their visitor visa has expired. �The idea will be welcomed by backbench Tory MPs, who have been urging the government to take a tougher line on immigration to combat the threat of UKIP�. But it is likely to face legal challenges on the grounds that � because it targets only people from so-called �high risk� countries � it is discriminatory. There are also fears it may lead to countries such as India making British tourists pay a similar bond. The scheme will be piloted from November, for people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana. They are being targeted because of the high volume of visitor visa applications and relatively high levels of abuse. The Home Office is targeting countries which have high volumes of visitor visa applications and what it deems to be relatively high levels of fraud and abuse.