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Britain, India, and immigration

The U.K. and India enjoy a close and vibrant relationship. We are global partners. We share the same global vision and democratic values. The relationship has never been better and the successful visit to India by our Prime Minister Gordon Brown clearly demonstrated this. This partnership is supported by the hundreds of thousands of people who travel between our two countries every year for business, family visits, study, and tourism. Not surprisingly, India is home to the U.K.’s largest visa operation — twice as big as any other we have anywhere in the world.

So at a time when the U.K. Government is planning wholesale changes to its immigration system, it is right that I am coming to India, along with a cross-party delegation of influential British Asian community leaders, to meet, listen, and respond to people who are interested in our plans to reform the U.K.’s immigration system.

Around the world, migration is developing in revolutionary new ways. Flights are cheaper and more plentiful. In the last three years, the number of direct flights between India and U.K. has more than tripled. So we need to ensure we have an immigration system that makes sense for the 21st century, and makes possible a closer relationship between our two countries over the decade to come.

Every government has the right to control its own borders. That’s not controversial. But it is easier said than done. And I know we cannot act alone or take decisions in a vacuum. The challenge we face is to put in place a system that makes the U.K. attractive and easy to reach for those we wish to come — for tourism, study and work, but to keep out those who intend to do harm or abuse our country. At the same time, I want to make the U.K. safer for those who stay there, whether they are British citizens or people living there permanently or temporarily.

These are objectives shared by all governments. Outline plans on how we intend to do this were published last year and now we need views on how to turn our plans into reality. I want to hear these views.

I want to encourage people with the right skills to come to the U.K. and India is a key source of the skills we need. To benefit the U.K. economy, we need to fill skills gaps in one of two ways — training up people in the U.K., which is what we have been doing with doctors, plus identifying skills in other countries and making it easier to bring these skills to the U.K. Current routes are unnecessarily complicated. So our Points Based System will make life simpler. Applications under the new system will be much more straightforward. Today there are more than 80 different ways to apply to work, study or train in the U.K.; under the new Points Based System, we will reduce this to just five. The new scheme will be introduced, category by category across all countries, in 2008 and 2009 and we’ll include a new clause for foreign students — there are 20,000 from India — to work for up to two years.

But it’s not just procedures for long term journeys that need updating. We need to review short-term visits too. I published some ideas on December 18, 2007 about how we can bring tourism, short-term study, and family visas into the 21st century. The proposals will affect people all over the world. But India is one of our most important friends. So that is why I’ve come to India to research our plans in depth.

As part of the current visitor consultation exercise, the Government is exploring possibilities such as creating a sponsored family visitor category, which would let a U.K. sponsor provide support and guarantees, for the first time, that a visitor will play by the rules — perhaps with a sworn statement or a bond. No decisions have yet been made on any of this. That will happen after the consultation period has ended. And, equally important, I want to make clear that any decisions that are taken as part of this exercise will apply across the U.K.’s visa operation world-wide. No countries will be singled out.

Our work securing Britain’s borders make life easier for legal travellers. The successful global roll-out of biometric data collection for U.K. visa applicants is key to this. Biometrics collection was introduced in India on December 12, 2007. This system provides assurance regarding the identity of visa applicants, helps prevent misuse of personal data and makes it easier for genuine travellers. Some of our visa customers have noticed that with the introduction of biometrics, their visa application is taking longer to process. I am sorry about this, and want to make clear that we are continuing to work with the Government of India to find a way to reduce processing times.

As part of its commitment to the protection and integration of migrants, the Government has also started to consult on forced marriages and a pre-entry English language requirement for spouses. I am the first to acknowledge that these are particularly sensitive areas of work and they need to be approached very carefully indeed. But, I am also equally clear that the U.K. Government has an obligation to ensure that all those living in the U.K. are adequately protected and supported.

All these issues are as complex as modern life has become. That is why our Government is keen to hear as wide a range of views as possible to get the answers right. I am keen that decisions on the future of the U.K.’s immigration policy are made in an open and clear way, where people have the opportunity to genuinely become involved in the debate. This is why I welcome this opportunity to come to India, to discuss these issues and to help develop the way in which we manage migration into the U.K. as the 21st century unfolds.

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