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The British Home Office announced on Wednesday that it was raising the minimum age at which foreign nationals can receive marriage visas from 18 to 21. This is expected to plug the perceived gap in Britain's immigration regime, mainly with respect to Indian girls imported into the country as wives of British Indian men.
Officials say about 15,000 British nationals marry non-Europeans each year, the brute majority being on the Indian sub-continent and that India featuring as the largest single provider of wives.
Observers said this is the only the most recent of a range of government measures to limit non-European immigration to the UK. The 1.3-million-strong Indian community is Britain's largest immigrant minority. Though generally seen to be economically important and reasonably well-integrated, a section of "less-globalised" British Indians continues to seek spouses from the mother country.
The Home Office said raising the minimum age for foreign marriage visas would substantially reduce the number of immigrant spouses coming into the country as a result of forced marriages. Sources said the new immigration barriers to letting 18-year-olds apply for marriage visas revolved around the thinking that the older a woman, the less chance of her being dragooned into an unwanted union.
The new immigration measures published as a document titled 'Securing the UK Border', also sets out how a complete overhaul of the regime governing visitor visas. It proposes urgent consultation on tougher sanctions for sponsors of family visas for non-European nationals, as well as installing technology at UK ports to record biometrics of non-EEA citizens without visas.
Britain's immigration minister, Liam Byrne, said on Wednesday that his government also planned to introduce confidential interviews for people applying for marriage visas, in an attempt to ascertain they were not entering the country after having been forced into marriage. Under the proposals, intended spouses will be expected to show some proficiency in English in a move to ensure they are able "socially and economically" to participate in British life.
He said the Home Office would be setting up a new body called the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which could advise the government on where migration might sensibly fill gaps in the labour market. Britain has already indicated it does not ideally forsee the import of any unskilled labour from outside the 27-member European Union. This is expected to affect thousands of British Indian restaurants, which routinely employ chefs from India.
Byrne said, "...tougher checks around the world mean we can stop people we don't want to come to Britain before they set off by plane, train or boat.The days when border control started at the white cliffs of Dover are over. Our immigration control needs to start well before people come anywhere near British shores.
He added that the introduction of a US-style visa waiver programme would create a strengthened border control to screen people the UK wants to enter and deny those it does not, even
before they get here.
Home Secretary John Reid explained the new immigration controls were essential because Britons' highest priority was "fair and effective" management of immigration.
The plans for a tougher immigration strategy includes an unprecedented proposal to send text messages to visitors reminding them not to overstay their visas. Immigrants may also be charged higher fees to acquire the settled visa status called "indefinite leave to remain" and to acquire British citizenship.
In a savage response to the newly announced immigration regime, Habib Rahman, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: "The new rules could effectively deny UK settlement and citizenship to some of the children in these (poorer) families indeterminately, while the fees relative to these groups' lower incomes are swingeing. It is completely unfair that these vulnerable groups should bear the brunt of the costs of increased immigration enforcement."
The Home Office said the new measures would help streamline the process of economic migration from non-EU countries because they envisage ID Cards for foreign nationals, which would "ensure only those entitled gain access to work and benefits".
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