LONDON
A high-powered British parliamentary committee has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking if he was consulted over a controversial plan to introduce a hefty £3,000 cash bond for ‘high-risk’ visitors from India.
Under the pilot scheme announced by British Home Secretary Theresa May last month, citizens of India, along with thoseof Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana and Sri Lanka, could be asked to pay a £3,000 cash bond in a bid to prevent them overstaying their visa.
The House of Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC), a group of cross-party MPs chaired by British-Indian Labour MP Keith Vaz, has been looking into the proposed visa and immigration system which will be enforced from November this year.
“I would be most grateful if you could clarify if your Government has been consulted by the UK Government on the bond’s pilot. As part of the committee’s remit, we have an ongoing inquiry into the work of UK visas and immigration,” wrote Vaz, who has previously categorised the scheme as “unfair and discriminatory”.
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