Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Sunday said he will try to block any attempt to make foreign visitors routinely pay a security deposit to come to the UK, an idea that has spurred outrage in countries such as India and Nigeria.
The government plans to begin a pilot project in November involving Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Some visitors will have to pay a 3,000 pound deposit, refunded upon departure.
The government has not said how many visa applicants will have to pay the bond.
Mr. Clegg said he opposes “an indiscriminate bond being applied to visitors who want to come to this country.”
“I am absolutely not interested in a bond, which becomes an indiscriminate way of clobbering people who want to come to this country,” Mr. Clegg told the BBC . He said the bonds “are certainly not going to go ahead” on that basis.
“Of course in a coalition I can stop things,” he added.