Visa-holders entering UK for invalid travel reasons, unions warn

Immigration staff have been powerless to turn away significant numbers of visa holders citing spurious reasons to enter the UK, despite the imposition of tougher border restrictions, two unions representing officers have warned.

Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the ISU, said officers had been confronted with arriving air passengers saying they were visiting the UK to go shopping, make casual visits to friends — and even, in one case, to visit Stonehenge.

Moreton said the “double handful” of visitors daily citing impermissible reasons suggested consular staff in some countries were issuing visas for visit types that were banned under coronavirus travel rules.

“People are still getting visas to come sightseeing, to come shopping, to see family,” Moreton said.

Procedures for handling travellers with visas meant officers ultimately had to admit them despite their misgivings, Moreton added.

The PCS, another union, also expressed concern that the government was allowing “many travellers” to enter the UK for “non-essential reasons”.

“This is a frustration for our members who are powerless to challenge this influx of travellers,” the PCS said.

All four nations of the UK since February have had varying levels of restriction on travel from a list of 33 “red list” countries — including South Africa and Brazil — for everyone except UK and Irish citizens or people holding residence rights in the UK and a list of exempted categories. In England, anyone admitted from the countries in question has to quarantine in an approved hotel.

However, there have been calls for the restrictions to be extended to countries beyond the red list and for the list of exempted groups to be shortened.

The Home Office insisted Border Force officers had the right to refuse entry to any holder of a visitor visa who they believed had travelled to the UK for reasons “not permitted under current local health restrictions”.

“We are in a global health pandemic — people should not be travelling unless absolutely necessary,” the department said.

However, Moreton said that, while her members told holders of valid visas citing impermissible reasons for travel that they were being refused entry, they enjoyed an automatic right to an “in-country” appeal. As a result, they had to admit them to the UK to await an appeal hearing which could be months away.

“We had somebody who wanted to come and see Stonehenge — great, but you can’t do it during a pandemic,” Moreton said. “Coming to see museums, coming to see the sights, coming to see the shopping — they’re not things that UK residents can do.”

The Home Office said that since January this year it had put on hold consideration of all applications for visas for people travelling from red-list countries and from people who had obviously visited such countries in the previous 10 days.

Moreton accepted it was possible applicants had given consular officials different, valid reasons when they applied from those they cited on arrival. It might also be, Moreton added, that they were using visas valid for several months issued before the start of the latest lockdowns.

Nevertheless, she expressed frustration at the relatively high numbers involved.

“Certainly, it’s every day and a good double handful every day,” Moreton said.

The circumstances suggested some British consulates were issuing visas to people who had no good reason to travel, she added. She said there were particularly high numbers of visa-holding travellers citing invalid reasons arriving from west Africa — including Lagos, in Nigeria, Delhi, in India and Islamabad, in Pakistan.

“We’re questioning why visas are being issued for purposes that cannot possibly be fulfilled,” Moreton said.

Moreton is due to give evidence on Monday to MPs on the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.