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.
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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.
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