THE BRITISH Home Office yesterday decreed that as of midnight Wednesday (7:00 local time last night), Jamaicans would require visas to enter the UK. Previously, Jamaicans travelling to the UK for under six months did not require a permit.
The new requirement has been described as necessary to ease the pressure placed on its immigration system by Jamaicans residing there illegally.
Britain's Acting High Commissioner to Jamaica, Phil Sinkinson, said the Home Office's decision was in no way a "knee jerk reaction" to reduce growing numbers of Jamaican drug traffickers flocking the country and persons linked to "yardie" gangs, said to be major contributors to that country's increasing crime level.
The High Commissioner, at a briefing at his office in Kingston yesterday, said that the decision resulted from years of discussions and was made based on the pressure put on the UK's immigration system by thousands of Jamaicans who visit the country each year, among them large numbers of unaccompanied minors and those who breach immigration laws by absconding.
According to UK officials, between January and June 2002, more than 1,500 Jamaican nationals absconded after being granted temporary stay, an average of more than 150 each month. Last year, British Airways recorded the arrival of l,202 unaccompanied minors arriving at UK's Gatwick North airport from Kingston. Only 592 departed.
The visa requirements also affect Jamaicans living in foreign countries. It is also being seen by UK officials as not only "an important tool in effective border control," but as a means of helping to prevent delays of two or more hours at UK immigration control for people arriving on Jamaican flights.
"For some years, the number of Jamaican passengers being refused entry on arrival in the UK has been increasing, causing frustration and delays to genuine passengers of more than two hours," the High Commission quoted UK Home Secretary, David Blunkett as saying.
The Commission added that in 2001, six per cent of all Jamaicans arriving in the UK (3,340 out of 55,600) were refused entry and in the UK's main ports in the run up to Christmas, Jamaicans accounted for around 20 per cent of all passengers refused entry.
The UK announcement was met with concern by the local Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Ministry, which said that it has tried to prevent the imposition of a visa regime since discussions began between both sides on the issue in early 2001.
While agreeing that the visas may mean less delays at airports, the Foreign Affairs ministry, in a statement, said that "the visa requirements will mean additional cost and inconvenience to prospective Jamaican visitors to the UK."
But in addressing the Ministry's concerns, Ambassador Sinkinson and head of visa section, Mandy Ivemy, promised that measures are in place to lessen any hassle for local persons.
The High Commission said that persons who bought their tickets up to yesterday and who will arrive in the UK before midnight (UK time) on January 14, 2003 will not require the visa immediately.
