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Britain drops controversial visa bond scheme

Paran Balakrishnan in London

Britain has dropped the controversial visa bond scheme that would have forced some overseas visitors from countries like India to make cash guarantees before travelling to the United Kingdom.

The British government said visa bonds, which caused an uproar in the Asian community earlier this year, were being abandoned because the scheme could not be implemented and did not fit with the immigration department's computerisation programme.

"The developmental work on the pilot study has identified a number of practical issues," Keith Vaz, the junior Foreign Office minister said in a written parliamentary reply. Vaz oversees immigration controls outside Britain.

Under the scheme certain visitors from countries like India would have had to post guarantees of up to 10,000 pounds to enter Britain.

The government put the scheme on the backburner after extensive protests from British Asians, but it was scheduled to start pilot projects in Morocco and the Philippines in October.

In a densely worded statement Vaz -- who is of Indian origin -- said logistical factors prevented the scheme from being implemented. "Moves towards a more flexible approach to the operation of immigration controls -- including the introduction of new IT systems -- have frustrated attempts to design a simple and effective scheme for providing a bond facility for visitors," the minister said.

In January the British government announced it would start a pilot scheme in two countries of the Indian sub-continent. The government claimed that British Asians had proposed the scheme which was to be used only in a limited number of borderline cases.

However, it was taken aback by the strength of the protests against the scheme and allegations that it was trying to push through racist legislation.

Vaz came under fire during a trip to India and categorically announced that the scheme would not proceed if it was opposed by the Asian community.

The British government announced in February that the scheme would not be piloted on the Indian sub-continent. There were predictions that the scheme would be abandoned after the pilot project was switched to Morocco and Philippines. There would not have been large enough numbers to ensure a successful trial run in these countries.

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