British Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Thursday said that Indians are the largest group that overstays its visa in the United Kingdom, London-based magazine The Spectator reported.

In an interview to the weekly, Braverman described the matter as a concern for the free trade agreement which India and the United Kingdom are looking to finalize by the end of this year. Easing immigration rules is part of the agreement.

Suella Braverman has again risked upsetting No 10 after saying she has “reservations” about Britain’s trade deal with India because it could increase immigration to the UK.

Liz Truss said she wants to sign a trade agreement with India by Diwali at the end of this month. The Indian government is demanding an increase in work and study visas for Indian nationals and earlier this year Boris Johnson said the agreement would lead to increased immigration.

In an interview with the Spectator, Braverman said Indian migrants make up the largest number of visa overstayers in the UK. The home secretary also criticized a deal with India, signed by her predecessor Priti Patel, to increase the number of illegal migrants and overstayers returned to the country, saying the agreement “has not necessarily worked very well”.

Braverman was referring to the Migration and Mobility Partnership signed by her predecessor at the Home Office Priti Patel and Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in May last year. The deal allows up to 3,000 Indians between the ages of 18 and 30 to live and work in the UK for two years annually.

Braverman’s comments to The Spectator came three days after she spoke against low-skilled migrants and the growing numbers of student visas being issued.

“I do think we do get to a point where we have to look at some of the courses that people are doing in this country, some of the institutions, they are not always very good quality,” she had said at the Conservative Party annual conference held on Tuesday.

Home Office statistics show that 20,706 Indians overstayed their visas in 2020, higher than any other nationality, although other nationalities recorded a higher proportion of overstayers. Of the 473,600 Indians whose visas were due to expire in the 12 months to March 2020, 452,894 are known to have left, meaning 4.4% of them overstayed their visa.

Braverman told the Spectator: “I have concerns about having an open borders migration policy with India because I don’t think that’s what people voted for with Brexit.”

Asked whether she would support a deal if it only involved greater flexibility for students and entrepreneurs, she said: “But I do have some reservations. Look at migration in this country – the largest group of people who overstay are Indian migrants.

“We even reached an agreement with the Indian government last year to encourage and facilitate better cooperation in this regard. It has not necessarily worked very well.”

Braverman has already caused alarm in the government by saying on Tuesday she would aspire to cut net migration to “tens of thousands” – a promise that previous Conservative governments have failed to keep.

One senior source said: “No one knows why she made those comments. That promise was used time and again to criticize Theresa May when she was home secretary.”

Braverman has also called for the UK to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR), while government policy is to work within the convention.

In a speech to the Conservative party conference on Wednesday, Truss confirmed plans for a streamlined law, which the prime minister hopes to introduce before Christmas, to ensure British courts cannot be overruled by the European court on human rights on issues of immigration.

It is designed to prevent the Strasbourg court from intervening to stop deportation flights in the future after its decision to grant an injunction barring migrants from being removed to Rwanda in June.

Truss also confirmed that the government is in negotiations with other countries on deals similar to the one with Rwanda, although Braverman has admitted the policy will not be implemented for months due to the lengthy process of legal challenges.

More than one lakh Indian students received a UK visa till June 2022 – an 89% increase from the previous year, PTI reported, citing data from the British Home Office. The rise in numbers resulted in India overtaking China as the country to which the highest number of student visas were issued by the UK to study in its higher education institutions.

Braverman was named as the British home secretary by Truss on September 6. She is the daughter of a Hindu Tamil mother Uma and a Goan-origin father Christie Fernandes. Her mother migrated to the UK from Mauritius while her father migrated from Kenya in the 1960s, according to PTI.

References:

theguardian.com