UK visitor bond policy racist: Amb Dahiru
The UK visa policy was first reported by the Sunday Times newspaper of London. A day later, a spokesman for the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Ministry told Daily Trust the policy was rescinded, but later events indicate that this was misleading. In an interview with Daily Trust yesterday, Amb Dahiru said as much as he believes […]
The UK visa policy was first reported by the Sunday Times newspaper of London. A day later, a spokesman for the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Ministry told Daily Trust the policy was rescinded, but later events indicate that this was misleading.
In an interview with Daily Trust yesterday, Amb Dahiru said as much as he believes that every country reserves the right to formulate its own policies, the question is whether such policy is good or not, or formulated specifically to target certain people or countries which is the case in the current circumstance.
“You want to ask yourself why some countries are not affected, to me, it is not only a bad policy but also discriminatory and racist as it is targeted at Africans and Asians”, he said.
Dahiru argued that if the policy was actually targeted at people who overstay or don’t want to return from the UK, the 3000 pounds being imposed is rather insignificant compared to what someone may want to achieve while staying back.
“Come to think of it, if a person decides not to come back what will 3000 pounds do to him? It will not be enough to compensate the UK, but if that is what the UK wants to do it is still in their national interest, but I would rather suggest that it is better to impose stringent visa requirements instead. Left to me it is a bad policy, especially as they have the right to scrutinise those who apply for visa or decide who to give visa, I don’t think it is right to single out countries”, he added.
Pointing out that it would amount to hollow argument to link such countries with terrorism, he said even the Nigerian born British men recently linked to the killing of a British soldier were home-grown Britons and not brought up in Nigeria. He therefore suggested that diplomacy be allowed to do its work to reach a common ground on the subject.
The Chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa yesterday said UK would pay dearly if it goes ahead with the plan. Speaking on Channels Television, she called for a reciprocation by Nigeria by asking British citizens coming to Nigeria to even pay a higher bond.
On Tuesday, British High Commissioner to Nigeria Andrew Pocock said in a statement after a meeting with Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru that details of the pilot scheme were still being worked out and no final decision had been taken.
He said described the plan as a very small scale trial of the use of financial bonds as a way of tackling abuse in the immigration system, which occurs when some people overstay their visa terms.
“If the pilot were to go ahead in Nigeria it would affect only a very small number of the highest risk visitors. The vast majority would not be required to pay a bond. Those paying bonds would receive the bond back, if they abided by the terms of their visa,” he had said.