A pilot scheme, announced over the weekend by Theresa May, the UK home secretary, would levy a £3,000 bond on short-term visitors from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ghana, as part of Conservative efforts to bring down UK net migration to 100,000 by the next election.
After confusion over how the bond would work, the Home Office confirmed on Tuesday that it would not apply to all visitors from the selected countries, but just a few considered to be at particularly high risk of breaching their visas.
The scheme, which would involve forfeiture of the deposit, in the event of visitors overstaying, has run into fierce opposition from the countries targeted, amid signs the UK government is already thinking again.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s economy and finance minister and a former managing director of the World Bank, said the proposals were anathema to the spirit of agreements between the two countries, aimed at boosting trade and investment.
“Frankly we are baffled by the whole thing. This is a very blunt instrument. It sends all the wrong signals about Britain’s openness for trade and tourism,” she told the Financial Times, saying she was sure every country targeted, had the “principles of reciprocity” in mind.
Nigeria is Africa’s leading oil producer and with 160m people, its most populous nation. Its fast-growing economy has drawn foreign investors, while wealthy Nigerians have become some of the highest spending consumers among visitors to the UK.
More than 180,000 Nigerians apply for UK visas every year and about 70 per cent of applications are successful, the British High Commission in Abuja said.
Olugbenga Ashiru, Nigeria’s foreign minister, summoned Andrew Pocock, the high commissioner, to a meeting on Tuesday. In a statement afterwards, Ashiru said: “The proposed policy would definitely negate the joint commitment by Prime Minister David Cameron and President Goodluck Jonathan to double the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries by 2014.”
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