'High-Risk' Countries Forced to Pay before Entering U.K.  

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The flood of immigrants, especially non-Europeans, entering the U.K. has become a great problem for the country. Each year, approximately 2.2 million people get visas to enter the nation. However, only hundreds of thousands return to their homeland. The rest chose to stay and become illegal immigrants. 

In order to curb the massive flow of immigrants entering the U.K., Home Secretary Theresa May has issued a controversial policy. Visitors from "high-risk" countries in Asia and Africa will be forced to pay will be forced to pay a £3,000 cash bond before they can enter Britain. 

This "high-risk" status will apply to countries where its citizens often flock to Britain and never return back home such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 

The pilot scheme will take effect in November 2013. With this immigration bond, these foreigners will be able to obtain a six-month visa. If the visitor does not go back to their homeland by the time the visa is up, the British government will keep the bond from the visitor. 

"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," Mrs May told The Sunday Times. 

In 2012, 296,000 Indian citizens were granted six-month tourist visas to the U.K. Some 101,000 from Nigeria, 53,000 people from Pakistan, and 14,000 people from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka each were also granted tourist visas. 

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