India is among the "high-risk" countries in Asia which will have to pay a £3,000 (₹2.7 lakh) cash bond deposit before they enter the borders of Britain. Home Secretary Theresa May is all set to introduce the controversial move in November this year.
A pilot scheme to curb immigration violations will initially target visitors from seven countries in Asia and Africa, including India, Pakistan and Nigeria, as reported by The Sunday Times.
Under this scheme, visitors will have to pay the government the cash guarantee or deposit to prevent immigration abuse. And if they overstay their visit to UK after their visas expired, the money will be forfeited.
"The countries are being targeted by the Home Office because of the high volume of visitor visa applications and relatively high levels of fraud and abuse," the report said.
It was said that the move by the British Conservative politician was due to the growing threat from UK Independent Party which will exploit the public sentiment about the impact of migrants on their jobs. UK's unemployment rate is currently on a 15 year high at 8.5 percent with more than two million jobless.
"This is the next step in making sure our immigration system is more selective, bringing down net migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands while still welcoming the brightest and the best to Britain ... In the long run, we are interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public services," May said.
The scheme was earlier slammed by MP Keith Vaz who said that it would "antagonise settled communities in Britain and enrage our allies such as India."
The move sounded as a controversial Tory government policy as it targets people from non-white Commonwealth countries.
