Our bonds with UK could weaken

The UK Government’s decision on ‘high-risk’ travellers from India and five other countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) has caused quite a flutter. And not without reason: The UK wants travellers from these countries to buy a bond for £3,000 — an amount that will have to be forfeited if they overstay the limit. The decision will come into effect with a one-year trial period, starting November this year.

Following the furore over the move, the UK Government has been unable to clarify on who will be impacted.

The only thing it could say was that not everyone but only “high risk” visitors would be asked to submit these bonds. Who are “high risk”’ visitors? Will a bank guarantee or cash bonds with various Indian banks in the UK will meet the UK Government’s requirements? The UK Government says it would like to test out bonds as a deterrent to visa abuse, such as overstaying.

Last year, the UK granted 2,96,000 six-month visas to people from India; 101,000 from Nigeria; 53,000 from Pakistan and 14,000 each from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In this day and age of heightened security, every country has the right to decide on who should enter its borders. In this context, the UK Government’s decision makes sense.

Tables have turned

The UK has also been facing problems of illegal migration from India. For instance, reports suggest that in 2012, Britain deported close to 2,000 people, a third of whom were Indians.

According to another official report, the UK Border Agency probably let through 40,000-50,000 illegal students in recent years, largely from India, Bangladesh and China. Most of these people have not been traced.

However, what also cannot be disputed is that the Indian diaspora in the UK is among the largest and, after decades now, there are Indians who are Members of the British Parliament. Lord Swraj Paul, who left India several decades ago, is just one example of Indians contributing their energies and money to the UK economy.

In the changed economic scenario, the benefits that Britain gets from economic ties with India can’t be dismissed easily. For instance, a study by a body of the UK Government shows that India was the third largest investor in that country during 2010-11. As many as 97 new projects also came up in the UK.

The UK Government’s cold shoulder coincides with India firmly telling the British Government that it no longer needs the aid package that the former colonial power had been providing for years. And, come 2015, the aid is expected to discontinue.

Is it out of a sense of pique that UK targeting Indian travellers? What is the message? That it wants Indian investments but not its visitors?

It does not seem as though the UK Government is thinking straight. Recently, it has also started wooing the Hindi film industry to shoot its films in scenic locations in Britain. Isn’t that meant to attract more tourists from India?

Impact of the move

Indians are are known to be avid travellers and among the largest spenders when they travel abroad. This is recognised by governments across the globe. What then makes Britain so different?

Any international traveller knows that planning a holiday to the UK is not cheap. Now, with an additional £3,000 blocked for the duration of the stay, the impact of the British Government’s decision on those planning a holiday to the UK is anybody’s guess.

While the travel fraternity is still trying to understand the implications of this new move and is hoping that it will not impact leisure travellers, M. M. Pallam Raju, Union Human Resources Development Minister, said that the latest move could prove costly for those pursuing higher education abroad.

Besides students, even business travellers who would ideally like to spend more time in the country, combining their business meetings with a spot of leisure travel, will be affected.

Flight operations

What will happen to all the flights that airlines like the Dubai-based Emirates, which has over 150 weekly flights from India to Dubai and six daily flights from there to London, not to mention other destinations in the UK? Or, for that matter, British Airways, which has 45 flights a week connecting Heathrow to five Indian cities. And, as Pallam Raju said, there will be diplomatic implications.

The Indian Foreign Office has asked its High Commission in London to seek official information on the issue and indicated that, if required, could be discussed at the India-UK consular discussions expected to be held next month.

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