UK to scrap `paid-visa` rule for `high-risk` Indians

Tokyo – The UK is reportedly planning to scrap the recommendation of demanding cash bond of 4,800 dollars from visitors belonging to six ‘high-risk’ nations.

The nation’s government had earlier announced that the visitors coming from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ghana and Nigeria would be required to pay the deposit for a six-month visa and they would have forfeited the money if they overstayed.

A Home Office spokeswoman said that the government has been considering whether the bond scheme would deter people from overstaying the visa and have decided not to proceed, the Japan Times reports.

The earlier announcement had led to evident condemnation and outcry from government and business leaders of other nations including India, with which Britain has been trying to foster a closer trade relationship.

The Nigerian foreign minister, Olugbenga Ashiru, had said in June that the bond scheme was not only discriminatory but also capable of undermining the spirit of the Commonwealth family.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s government has been trying to show its seriousness to cut net migration into Britain below 100,000 a year by the next election in 2015, the report added.