Visitors from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ghana to pay bond from November under Home Office plans but Lib Dems yet to sign off the details
We reported on Monday how the Home Office announced it was to pilot a £3,000 per visitor immigration bond scheme, but the Guardian now reports that the plans are being hastily rewritten after Nick Clegg declined to sign off the details of the pilot scheme.
A Lib Dem source told the Guardian: "The policy has not yet been signed off. We are in favour of the principle but the exact details of how it is to be piloted, including the size of the bond, is still being discussed in government."
The Financial Times had earlier reported that David Cameron “slammed the brakes” on the pilot scheme after news of the policy provoked uproar in India and threatened his attempt to boost trade links with the country.
According to the Guardian, Home Office sources confirmed that the level at which the bond is to be set was among the details yet to be decided, and said the pilot scheme was still in the planning stage. A statement issued on Monday by the Home Office about the scheme (see below) has now been withdrawn.
Media have also reported on the negative reaction to the bond scheme from some of the six countries included in the pilot scheme.
According to BBC News, Nigerian politicians criticised the plan as "unacceptable" and the Confederation of Indian Industry, which represents the country's largest businesses, said the plan was "very unfortunate" and risked further undermining Anglo-Indian relations already strained by changes to the UK visa regime for students.
You can read our original report from Monday, June 24 below:
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News media have reported that the government is to introduce an immigration bond scheme from November which will target visitors from "high risk" countries.
According to the Financial Times, the pilot scheme will initially cover visitors from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ghana.
Under the scheme, those coming to Britain on six-month visitor visas will be charged a £3,000 "bond" on arrival in the UK.
The FT reports that the bond will be repaid entirely to those who leave the country before their visa has expired.
The Daily Mail reported that Home Secretary Theresa May said the intention was to make the immigration system more 'selective' and deter people from 'overstaying' once their visitor visa has expired.
The Home Secretary also hopes to extend the bond scheme to include foreign workers and students, and other countries.
The FT quotes May as saying, "if the scheme is successful we’d like to be able to apply it on an intelligence-led basis on any visa route and any country.”
The Daily Mail notes that the Australian-style bond scheme is likely to face legal challenges on the grounds that it discriminates against only those from certain Asian and African countries.
In a press release issued today, the Home Office stated:
This pilot will run for twelve months starting in November. The purpose of this pilot is to test the effectiveness of bonds as a deterrent against visa abuse, such as overstaying. This pilot scheme will operate in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana.
The pilot will be highly selective and focused on the highest risk applicants – we will not require all visitors from the selected pilot countries to pay a bond. The number of bonds issued during the pilot will be limited.
The level of the bond will be set at £3000 per adult; children under 18 years will be exempt.
The bond payment will be returned if the visitor returns home after their visit visa has expired and within the time period specified by their visa.
To bring the scheme into force, the Home Secretary will lay a Commencement Order before Parliament to activate the power in the Immigration and Nationality Act 1999 to require a bond from visitors, and make changes to the Immigration Rules to establish the pilot schemes.
Home Secretary Theresa May said:
"This is the next step in making sure our immigration system is more selective, bringing down net migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands while still welcoming the brightest and the best to Britain.
"In the long run we're interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public services.
"We're planning a pilot that focuses on overstayers and examines a couple of different ways of applying bonds. The pilot will apply to visitor visas, but if the scheme is successful we'd like to be able to apply it on an intelligence-led basis on any visa route and any country."
Following careful evaluation, the Home Secretary will then decide whether to establish a permanent scheme.