The new UK visa scheme will impose £3,000 on unspecified visa applicants thought to be “high risk visitors” from Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
In response to the proposal which is yet to take off, the federal government has threatened retaliatory measures if London goes ahead with the “refundable” but unpopular visa bond.
The report indicated that there was palpable anger and disappointment among Nigerians who have gained admission into British universities for the upcoming academic session.
Students already in UK institutions are also to be unhappy about a new “visa bond” scheme to be implemented against “high risk” visitors by the David Cameron administration.
As a precautionary measure, many parents have instructed Nigerian banks to suspend, for now, sending tuition and accommodation fees to British universities, the report noted.
The report quoted diplomatic sources in Abuja, as saying both the M16 and Scotland Yard, are reportedly worried that some foreign students, who apply for visas to study in British universities have developed, in their home countries, ideas and determination to commit terrorism on British soil.
The report said the visa bond was believed to be a subtle way of ensuring that students who are labelled “high risk” know that they will be targets of intelligence surveillance while they are studying at British universities.
It quoted a diplomat, who did not want to be named, as saying that Ghana was included on the “high risk” country list because its airport and seaports were thought to be avenues for Latin American drug cartels which use some Ghanaian students as drug couriers.
The same diplomat said some students from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh had been involved in terrorism in Britain.
He cited the cases of Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, a Nigerian and former student of University College, London, who tried to blow up an American plane in December 2009, and another student Michael Adebolajo, a Nigerian-born Briton, who recently hacked a British soldier to death.
“The British government is convinced that the use of the visa bond may go a long way to make Britain safe,” the diplomat said.
The diplomat also revealed that the bond would be extended to some non-students thought to be high risk and hinted that British embassies might collaborate with local intelligence services in collecting evidence on some visa applicants.
British M16, Police proposed £3,000 visa bond – Report
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