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Visitor Admissions: Effect Of Visa Requirement

Volume 492: debated on Monday 1 February 1988

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asked Her Majesty's Government:What information they have on the effects of the imposition of visas on admissions and of refusals of those seeking entry as visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ghana.

The available information, comparing the first nine months of 1987 with the same period of 1986, for nationals of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ghana is given in the following table. Corresponding figures are not given for Nigeria because visas were not introduced there until February 1987. Although there was no delay in issuing visitor visas, the numbers of visitors seeking admission fell—if at different rates—from each of the four countries between the first nine months of 1986 and 1987. Because of these falls and because of the limitations of the port refusal figures described in the second footnote to the table, refusal rates before and after visas were introduced cannot usefully be compared, particularly when it is too early to judge how far travel patterns have changed permanently. The Government will continue to monitor the situation.

VISITOR ADMISSIONS AND REFUSALS, 1986-7
BangladeshIndiaPakistanGhana
Visitor admissions
January to September 19869,280141,09069,59021,120
January to September 1987(1)7,200118,20052,20014,000
Initial refusals (all categories) at the ports
January to September 19861,1803,4502,0701,440
January to September 1987(2)1,080660390480
Visitors refused entry clearance abroad
January to September 198638015030n/a
January to September 19871,3403,8805,4701,920
(1) Estimates based on admissions in January to August grossed up using the pattern of admissions in 1986.
(2) Almost entirely persons who had arrived before mid-October 1986 but who, due to backlogs at the ports, were not "initially refused" until 1987 (these refusals cannot be differentiated in the figures); and persons without a visa, for which there was no equivalent category of refusal in 1986.