Making A Difference

Bond Of No Return

A visas-against-bonds plan raises hackles at home and ‘target’ countries

Advertisement

Bond Of No Return
info_icon

Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur will have a lasting impact on modern British history. Punjab’s famed spirit of enterprise has sent many of our brethren-too many, say immigration officers in London-to Britain one way or another. But just how many?

"The Home Office figures were about 60,000 and that was some years ago," says Piara Singh Khabra, MP for Ealing Southall, who was on the parliamentary committee that proposed the visa bond scheme. That number is now reported to be higher, though the Home Office isn’t going public on it. That kind of ‘migration’ has come mainly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, says Khabra. "It’s simply a fact of life."

Advertisement

"The whole move is nakedly racist," says Habib Rahman of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. When Australians and Canadians overstay, it is informal settlement, he says. But when Indians and Pakistanis overstay, it is illegal migration.

The government is going ahead with a pilot scheme to launch bonds for visas, whatever minister in the Foreign Office Keith VAZ might have said in New Delhi or Dhaka. "We will have a scheme running from October for six months and a final decision will be taken after that," a Home Office spokesman said. There is no agreement on the sum of £10,000, but there’s consensus that it’ll be a fairly high sum; the figure now being discussed is £5,000. What is proposed is simply this: that if an entry clearance officer suspects that a visitor intends to use a return ticket as a one-way ticket, the sponsors settled in Britain or sometimes even the visitor will be asked to post the bond. The money will be returned on return before the due date, which is usually up to six months from arrival. The bonds will be against cash only, and not pledging of property.

Advertisement

And the bonds, Khabra insists, will not be obligatory. "You cannot say at present how many will be asked to file bonds but the figure may be only 1 or 2 per cent of all visitors where the entry clearance officer suspects a visitor might not return."

Staying on can get as simple as just not going back. "It is only after six months that the Home Office will find out that the visitor did not return," says Khabra. "If the relative here says the visitors left, there’s nothing anybody can do."

But will the visa bond scheme stop the one-way traveller who comes in with a visa and disappears? "It could mean that anyone with money can simply buy their way in," says Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who’s opposed the proposal. "It’s ridiculous." He’s launched a campaign against the proposal. "Two days of press coverage brought the amount down from £10,000 to £5,000," he says. "I feel they’re getting nervous and might back off." The Home Office insists it’s going ahead. Corbyn isn’t the only one against the idea. There is considerable opposition from several Labour MPs. "Those with substantial Asian communities will be quite worried," says Corbyn.

The Conservative Party has opposed the proposal. The Tories say that if there is suspicion that a visitor might not return, they should simply be kept out and not let in on a bond. That is just what Khabra is trying to fight through the bond scheme. "The alternative is that people will simply be refused entry," he says. "It is a huge problem as many here can never bring their relatives over under the present system." Several Indians in Britain will be happy to file bonds to see their relatives here, Khabra says. "The scheme is going to be helpful. "

Advertisement

Disputes over the scheme have led inevitably to differences between the Home Office, which sets up the policy, and the Foreign Office, whose staff will actually take decisions at visa offices. The timing of the leak of the proposal from the Home Office was itself intended to embarrass VAZ on his visit to the subcontinent, senior officials here say. More disputes are certain to follow. Which country will the pilot scheme target? And if it runs for just six months, will visitors from that country simply wait six months for the pilot scheme to end? And who will decide which country? It’s never a long step from a bureaucratic maze to a bureaucratic mess. Britain’s history of immigration controls has shadowed inevitably the history of migration. For the determined settler, this could mean just another system to beat; it might also just mean another system to work.

Advertisement

Tags

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement