Plans for a £3,000 "security bond" for
some "high risk" overseas visitors to the
UK are to be abandoned, the Home
Office has confirmed. The visa bond scheme was announced by
Home Secretary Theresa May in June and
was set to be introduced this month. A Home Office spokesman confirmed a Sunday Times report that the policy would be scrapped. The decision is thought to have been
taken after deputy prime minister Nick
Clegg threatened to block it. The aim of the scheme was to reduce the
number of people from some "high risk"
countries - including India, Pakistan, and
Nigeria - staying in the UK once their
short-term visas had expired. Visitors would have paid a £3,000 cash
bond before arrival in the UK - forfeited if
they failed make the return trip. 'Outrage' The idea was first suggested by Mr Clegg
in March. But Business Secretary Vince Cable later
claimed the deputy prime minister's plan,
which had suggested a bond of £1,000,
had been deliberately misinterpreted by
some of their Conservative cabinet
colleagues. "What Nick Clegg said was if somebody
in the Indian sub-continent, for example,
was turned down for a visa, they could,
as an alternative, come up with a bond...
But the way some of our colleagues
interpreted was in a much more negative way, of saying that everybody who
comes here should pay this very large
bond," Mr Cable said in September. Mr Cable also criticised the level at which
the bond was set and said that it had
caused "outrage" in India. He said both he and Nick Clegg would be
arguing in government for a "much more
sensible and flexible" approach to the
policy. The idea was also floated several times
by the previous Labour government but
never implemented. The announcement comes two weeks
after a roll out of Home Office vans with
posters warning illegal immigrants to "go
home or face arrest" was cancelled. Mrs May told MPs she accepted they had
"not been a good idea" and were too
much of a "blunt instrument".