Sunday, November 3rd, 2013
Britain has scrapped a plan to force people from Nigeria, Ghana, and certain
Asian countries to pay a cash bond in return for a visitors visa after it
caused an outcry at home and abroad and exposed a rift in the governing
coalition.
In a move that political rivals said showed Prime Minister David Camerons
flagship immigration policy was in disarray, a government spokesman said a
pilot scheme which had been due to start this month had been cancelled.
We have decided not to proceed, the spokesman said on Sunday, declining to
explain why.
Under the plan, visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Nigeria and Ghana seeking a six-month British visa would have been obliged
to pay a refundable 3,000-pound ($4,800) cash bond to deter them from
overstaying.
The government chose those countries because they were high risk sources
of illegal immigration, it said.
Polls show that immigration is one of the most important issues for voters
in Britain, where Camerons Conservative party faces the threat of the UK
Independence Party (UKIP) siphoning off support ahead of a parliamentary
election in 2015.
Concerns have been fuelled recently by warnings in the right-leaning media
about hordes of Romanians and Bulgarians moving to Britain next year, when
European Union freedom of movement restrictions lapse at a time when Britons
face rising competition for jobs.
UKIP, which campaigns for Britain to leave the EU and for a halt to open
door immigration, made sweeping gains in local elections in May, winning
almost one in four votes, mostly at the expense of the Conservatives.
Most opinion polls regularly give it a support base of around 10 percent of
the electorate.
The U-turn on the visa bonds underlines deep policy rifts in the alliance
between the Conservatives and their junior partner, the center-left Liberal
Democrats.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg initially said the bond plan was an idea
worth exploring, but changed his mind after some in his party called it
discriminatory.
Two weeks ago, the government said it was abandoning an idea for a
nationwide advertising campaign urging illegal immigrants to go home or
face arrest. A pilot scheme in London had sparked accusations of racism
from some politicians.
Reuters
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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