Ghanaians, others to pay £3,000 to enter UK

From November this year, Ghanaians travelling to the UK will be required to pay £3,000 (GH¢9,000) as a bond before entering the country.

They will only get the money back once they leave the country, in a bid to end abuse of the visa system.

Visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria have also been affected by the new regulation announced by the UK Home Secretary, Theresa May.

A pilot scheme, according to the Guardian newspaper, will be rolled out by the UK government in November this year, when visitors from the six countries that have been described as “high risk” and Asian countries would be charged to enter the country.

According to Ms May, the intention is to make the immigration system more ‘selective’ and deter people from ‘overstaying’ once their visitor visa has expired.

“The idea will be welcomed by backbench Tory MPs, who have been urging the government to take a tougher line on immigration to combat the threat of UKIP”.

But it is likely to face legal challenges on the grounds that – because it targets only people from so-called “high risk” countries – it is discriminatory.

There are also fears it may lead to countries such as India making British tourists pay a similar bond.

The scheme will be piloted from November, for people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana.

They are being targeted because of the high volume of visitor visa applications and relatively high levels of abuse.

The Home Office is targeting countries which have high volumes of visitor visa applications and what it deems to be relatively high levels of fraud and abuse.