By Wale Adetarami
One of our followers on twitter contacted us; she narrated how
she was denied a visa by the British embassy in Nigeria, this experience made
her choose a research topic on visas and immigration in one of her thesis at
school. She sought our opinion on certain issues and we responded swiftly.
Her questions and our
own answers are as follows:
Question 1. Do you think people are aware of
the pros and cons involved in a travelling process?
Answer: The level of enlightenment and the environment
are the key factors to consider when measuring the degree of awareness of the
pros and cons in a travelling process in the people. Educated people, who have
means of accessing information, should know the necessary requirements for
visa, the right to appeal denial when there is a genuine case; they should know
that there is need to secure hotel/accommodation and airport protocol before
travelling. A first time traveler should
not even think of getting into a country before looking for hotel to lodge in.
Adequate preparations should have been made. They should know; they need to
find out about procedures of doing things, the dos and don’ts of the country
they are travelling to, their flight tickets and complete itinerary, their
rights against embassies and airlines(over cancellations of flights,
postponements and so on). The environment has to do with the ways of living and
culture of the people. In Europe and America, an average family goes on holiday
at least once in 2years; the same cannot be said of Africa. We hardly go on
vacation, what we do is visit to our hometowns , apart from the business travelers,
the percentage of families that do travel for holidays is on the low side, so
many factors are responsible for this, and overtime we should expect to see
change. The regular travelers are aware of the pros and cons involved in the process,
while many who have not travelled or still nursing the hope of travelling know
little or nothing about it.
QUESTION 2. What do people
mostly need visa for; Tourism, Education or Labour?
Answer: Applications for holiday visas is the highest
anywhere in the world, next to it is business visa, followed by education visa,
employment and permanent residency visa. The least number of applications are
for asylum seekers (Please note that no statistics attached).
QUESTION 3. VISA IS A FORM OF PRE-ENTRY CONTROL, HAS IT BEEN EFFECTIVE?
DOES IT SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION?
Answer: If there is no pre-entry control to enter the
US, UK, Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, etc; the soil of
Africa would be empty by now (especially West Africa). Everybody likes to live
in a country that is corruption and crime free, at least to the minimum, where
there is constant electricity supply, employment, good access roads, good
health care system, adequate security for lives and properties, good
educational system, unfortunately, these are lacking in the better parts of
Africa. It is visa that is stopping most people from ‘porting’ . On issue of
whether it solves the problem of illegal immigration, the answer is yes to a
large extent, but not completely. On
daily basis, cases of abuse are recorded all over the world and it has been
from the people from badly managed or poor countries/economies. People still
travel to America and Europe with valid or invalid documents, even with a
return flight ticket to their home countries and disappear on stepping on the
soil of their destinations. (In 2012 alone, a lot of African athletes who participated
in the London Olympics were declared missing prior to the end of the games), cases
of illegal immigration are recorded through the land and sea borders, immigrants
who contract marriages in order to get residency and work permit without
genuine love for their partners is still rampant and identity theft is
something else entirely.
QUESTION 4. WHY IS VISA POLICY ATTRACTIVE TO GOVERNMENTS?
Answer: It is like asking why do governments need to
protect the people or their economies. It is simple, to avoid any kind of
aggression. It is better to access the kind of values people are bringing into
a country. Governments avoid those infiltrations that would make their
economies or the people worse off.
QUESTION 5. IN THE EVENT OF THE PROPOSED VISA BOND, WHAT IS YOUR
SUGGESTION?
Answer: The government should intervene (They have
done so already). One thing we need to quickly address is the state of our
economy, if the economy is well managed and there is employment, security, good
health care, etc; why would anybody want to live abroad illegally?
Again, then relationship between
Nigeria and the United Kingdom is mutually beneficial, we should stop behaving
as if we don’t have anything to offer. The balance of trade and payments between
Nigeria and the UK favours UK more; we
import more and pay more, why we export less and receive less. The British
embassy and consulate in Nigeria have become a cash cow; it has the highest
traffic of applications in the whole world and the highest rate of denials as well.
If Nigerians stop applying for UK visa, stop buying UK made goods for a while,
the stance would be reconsidered.
QUESTION 6. SHOULD VISA FEES KEEP BEING PAID WITHOUT A GRANT OF VISA?
IS THERE A REASON WHY IT IS NOT REFUNDABLE?
Answer: It is one of the terms and
conditions applicants have accented to that the fees is not refundable, it is
the practice all over the world, why we feel pained is because a lot of
Nigerians lost money through the process, the same cannot be said of other
countries who get visas easily, where the rate of denial is low. The problem we
have is the doubt we have created around our applications and unfortunately,
innocent and genuine applicants are suffering for the sin of those that
specialize in forging documents to apply for visas. Visa issuance is a process,
and the fees are for the process. So, whether you are granted a visa or not is
not the issue, the issue is that you have passed through the process you paid
for. Unfortunately, there is nothing the government can do, the only thing the
government can negotiate is the fees, if it becomes too high and there is no
justification. My advice for those applying for visas is to seek opinions of
experts who can assist you to check your documents and application form before
you submit them, they will sight loopholes (If any), visa application is not a ‘do
it yourself’ thing for the inexperienced.
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