British Intelligence Service Proposed 3000 Pounds UK Visa Bond To Prevent Nigerians From Entering Britain – Report

By UDUMA KALU, Vanguard
A report from a United Kingdom based journal,
University World News, has said the £3,000 visa
pilot scheme against Nigeria was proposed by the
British intelligence service, MI6 and British police
headquarters at Scotland Yard.
The new UK visa scheme will impose £3,000 (US
$4,740) in charges on unspecified visa applicants
thought to be ‘high risk visitors’ from Nigeria,
Ghana, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
The Nigerian government has threatened
retaliatory measures if London goes ahead with
the ‘refundable’ but unpopular visa bond.
The report said 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
unhappy about a new ‘visa bond’ scheme to be
implemented against ‘high risk’ visitors by the
David Cameron’s 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 written by Professor Tunde Fatunde, a
Nigerian scholar quoted diplomatic sources in
Abuja, as saying 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, in their home
countries, ideas and determination to commit
terrorism on British soil.
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.
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 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.
He cited 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.
“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.