No entry for family visitors
JCWI & CAB joint press release Friday May 23rd 2003
Six national organisations representing lawyers, immigrants, and
Citizens Advice Bureaux have written to both the Home Secretary
and the Foreign Secretary seeking an explanation for an alarming
increase in refusals of visit visas for those wishing to visit
family members in the UK.
Citizens Advice, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants,
the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association, the Law Society,
the Immigration Advisory Service and Legal Action Group have issued
a joint letter to the Government, expressing their concern that
the increase in the visa refusal rate is adversely affecting the
family life of the UK's ethnic minority communities.
An analysis of the entry clearance figures for British embassies
and high commissions abroad shows that, in the latter half of
2002, applications to visit relatives in Britain made at entry
clearance posts in India and at others such as Tehran, Cairo,
Nairobi and Nicosia were on, average, twice as likely to be turned
down as they were in the first half of 2002. Disturbingly, given the backlash against
Muslim communities resulting from the so-called war on terrorism,
refusal rates were highest in countries with large Muslim populations. In contrast, refusal rates for countries
in North and South America fell.
Research by Citizen's Advice reveals that at New Delhi, for example,
the rate of refusal of family visitor visa applications doubled,
from 29 per cent between 1 January and 31 July, to 59.4 per cent
between 1 August and 31 December.
At Tehran, the refusal rate increased nearly three-fold,
from 8.5 per cent to 24.5 per cent.
At Dhaka in September, the refusal rate reached 84.4 per
cent - nearly nine times the overall
refusal rate of all visa applications in 2001-02.
The effect has been that family members of Britain's main ethnic
communities areincreasingly being prevented from visiting relatives
in the UK.
Following a 1997 manifesto pledge to Britain's black and Asian communities,
in 2000 the current Labour government reversed the abolition in
1993 of family visit appeals by the then Conservative government. It is feared that this very welcome initiative
is now being undermined by a hardening of decision-making, with
the result that innocent relatives, wanting to come to the UK
for weddings, funerals or other family events, are being unjustly
prevented from doing so.
Habib Rahman, Chief Executive of JCWI, comments:
"In
1997, the Government made a pledge to Britain's ethnic communities.
That pledge is now being undermined. The increase in refusal rates
highlights the institutionally discriminatory nature of British
immigration control. This constitutes a serious infringement of
people's basic human right to be with their family, such as depriving
grandparents from visiting their grandchildren in the UK."
David Harker, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice,
comments:
"Since the terrorist atrocities of 11 September 2001, government
ministers have quite rightly condemned the backlash against members
of Britain's ethnic minority communities, including racial attacks
on and abuse of Muslims and people perceived to be Muslim. However,
it seems that the decision-making of entry clearance officials
may now have fallen victim to the so-called war on terrorism,
much to the detriment of the family life of the very same communities."
For further information contact:Citizens Advice Bureau:
Richard Dunstan, Immigration Policy Officer
on 020 7833 7115 or 07754 957 609
Moira Haynes, Press Officer,
on 020 7833 7107 or 07790
019 116
JCWI:
Tauhid Pasha, Legal Policy and Information Director,
on 020 7251 8708 or 07813 320 212
Habib Rahman on 020 7553 7464
Appendices: Joint letter
to the Foreign Secretary
Paper by Citizens Advice, analysing entry
clearance statistics for 2002
