Well-Known British secret agency and the British Police headquarters at Scotland Yard have been fingered in the proposed £3,000 visa pilot scheme against citizens from Nigeria and some other countries already tagged ‘high risk visitors’, a United Kingdom based journal, University World News, has reported.
The report which was written by A Nigerian scholar, Professor Tunde Fatunde, quoted diplomatic sources in Abuja.
Professor Fatunde noted that both the M16 and the Scotland Yard, are reportedly worried that some foreign students who apply for visas to study in British universities have developed terrorism tendencies in the UK.
The new UK visa scheme expected to place £3,000 (US$4,740) in charges on unspecified visa applicants who have been regarded as ‘high risk visitors’ from some specified counties; Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
The examples 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 student Michael Adebolajo, a Nigerian-born Briton, who recently hacked a British soldier to death were cited in the report.
Initially, the Nigerian government has threatened in reprisal measures should London embark on the implementation of the ‘refundable’ but unpopular visa bond policy which is set to be implemented by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s administration.
It quoted an unnamed diploma who said that Ghana was included on the ‘high risk’ country list due to the porosity of its airport and seaports which serve as avenues for Latin American drug cartels who use some Ghanian students as drug couriers.
The same diplomat said some students from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh had been involved in terrorism in Britain.
“The British government is convinced that the use of visa bond may go a long way to make Britain safe,” the diplomat said.
The diplomat also revealed that the visa bonds 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.
The report also indicated that there was palpable anger and disappointment among Nigerians who have already gained admission into British universities for the upcoming academic session while majority of the foreign students already in UK institutions are also unhappy about a new ‘visa bond’ scheme to be implemented against ‘high risk’ visitors.
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 said, the visa bond is believed to be a subtle way of ensuring that students who are labelled as ‘high risk’ know that they will be targets of intelligence surveillance while they are studying at British universities.