THE DECISION of the British Home Office to require Jamaicans to have visas to enter the UK carries with it a sense of inevitability. It was not so much if the requirement would be imposed but when.
Jamaicans now join citizens of several other Commonwealth countries who need to have visas to enter Britain, but significantly Guyana is the only other country in the region where the requirement has been imposed.
British officials have been at pains to point out that the menace of Jamaican drug traffickers targeting the UK and the role of Jamaican gangs in their increased levels of crime were not factors in the decision.
The decisive factor, they say, was the increased pressure on the UK's Immigration system by the thousands of Jamaicans who seek to enter Britain each year, the high number of persons who abscond and the large number of unaccompanied minors for whom no proper arrangements have been made. One official said that 20 per cent of passengers denied entry to Britain in November and December were from Jamaica. This is a significant percentage.
While we have to accept the word of the British officials that the decision was based on the pressure that the influx is placing on the immigration system a number of issues arise. If the large number of Jamaicans who travel to Britain were tourists who spent money during their stay and therefore made a contribution to the British economy the issue of visas would never arise.
It is an open secret that Jamaicans, having discovered that there were no visa requirements to enter the UK, have been flocking to that country in droves in search of a better way of life. The British High Commission said in 2001, 55,600 Jamaicans sought entry and of this number 3,300 were refused. No figures were supplied for 2002, but in response to increased demand Air Jamaica introduced daily flights to London seven days a week, with some times two flights a day plus two flights a week to Manchester.
As the economic conditions have worsened locally more and more persons have been making the visit a one-way trip, an average of 150 per month based on the numbers who the British say abscond.
There is also the matter of the drug traffickers. Before the Ionscan machines were installed at our airports to detect them at our end, the investigations took place in the UK with the pressures on their immigration and medical services.
The introduction of the visas is going to prove costly for those who now wish to travel to the UK but it will allow the British authorities to decide at this end the persons that they will allow to enter their country.
Foreign Affairs Minister K.D. Knight says Jamaicans have to accept blame for the circumstances which forced Britain to impose the visa regime. But there is no question that the imposition will fray the traditional "mother country" ties between both countries.
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