The British Government recently announced its plans to add a new rule to the visa processes wherein visitors aged 18 and over from high risk countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana, would be forced to pay GBP 3,000 for a six-month visit visa. The new rule, if put into effect, may target visitors from November this year. Since this possibility came to light, it has caused uproar among the travel fraternities in each of these countries, India especially, as the country is a large feeder market for the UK in terms of leisure, business, MICE, student and group traffic.
Reacting to the proposed move of British government, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) opined that it is highly discriminatory and very unfortunate. “CII strongly feels that such blanket rules for visas will negatively affect not only businesses, especially small businesses, it will also further bring down the number of students going to UK for higher studies and affect the tourism inflow from India to UK. This will also not help the cause of early conclusion of EU-India FTA, for which both the parties are committed,” CII stated.
Another industry body, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said the move would dampen the flourishing relationship between India and Britain. Naina Lal Kidwai, President, FICCI, said that while “We are still to fully see the implications of this move by the UK government, if there is any truth to this, it would be a dampener to an otherwise flourishing relationship between India and the UK. We hope that the UK government will have a rethink on the same taking cognisance of the full implications this could have”.
Vindi Banga, Chairman, FICCI’s UK Advisory Group, said, “A high risk status for visas for Indian visitors to the UK is 180 degrees opposite to Prime Minister David Cameron’s emphasis on a special relationship with India. If true, this move will adversely impact students, tourists and business alike. Britain will also lose out lakhs of Indian tourist and airlines and travel operators’ business between the two countries.”
The travel industry also echoed the similar sentiments. Vineet Raina, Vice President-Outbound, Trail Blazer Tours India, opined that the new visa norm proposed by the UK recently, which requires applicant to provide a hefty cash bond of GBP 3,000, will definitely be a deterrent and push visitors to other countries. He revealed that the travel industry has already voiced its sharp resentment. “The norm is targeted at controlling illegal immigrants and to stop visitors from over staying, but we do see it impacting the genuine visitors as well,” he added.
Slamming the proposed norm, Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI), called the new rule a money making strategy. “The demand for cash bonds worth GBP 3,000 is nothing but another way to make money off the visa applicants. As it is, UK charges several additional fees on various facets of the visa applications which no other country does. In addition, they have given us no clarity on what constitutes as a high risk country or what filters they are using to determine whether the tourists are high risk or not,” he said.
So far, tour operators have not witnessed an impact of the proposed rule on the outbound enquiries to the UK. Madhav Pai, Director, Leisure Travel (Outbound), Thomas Cook (India) stated that the company is seeing a healthy increase in UK travel bookings with an over 20 per cent increase over last year’s numbers and do not foresee any negative impact. In fact, Karan Anand, Head—relationships, Cox & Kings, opined that the norm will not impact genuine travellers. “The criteria are that it will apply to those people who stay for more than six months. So, this will affect only those who stay for long period. However, if they return the money will be refunded. Hence, it’s not a loss to anyone, just those who want to stay there illegally. Outbound holiday travellers do not spend more than two weeks in UK so this rule does not apply to them at all and as a result it will not impact outbound travel,” he said.
Sahni believes that if the British Government were to provide more clarity on their strategy it would be possible to discuss and come to a solution that would be helpful to everyone. “We still hope the new norm will be withdrawn for the benefit of tourism and bilateral relationship between both the countries,” said Raina. Meanwhile, Visit Britain India office refused to comment on this issue saying that it is, first and foremost, a government decision which has not been confirmed yet.
The Government of India has also voiced it concern and directed its High Commission in London to get details of the issue. HRD minister MM Pallam Raju said, “I agree that this would be a deterrent factor. But, I hope that it is only a temporary deterrent. We will make all diplomatic efforts to ensure that there is no hindrance to student mobility.”
Meanwhile, a day after India voiced its strong protests over the proposed move, the UK said no final decision has been taken on the norm, which they intend to run as a pilot scheme. Marcus Winsley, Director of Press and Communications in the British High Commission in New Delhi, said that the government remains committed to tackling immigration abuse and was looking at a range of options.
He further added that senior UK and Indian officials are scheduled to meet in London in late July for a comprehensive dialogue on visa related issues. Financial bonds are expected to be on the agenda.
