The Guardian says that a leaked Home Office memo outlines controversial plans to scrap the right of appeal for relatives of British nationals who are refused visit visas.
According to the Guardian, the leaked Home Office submission to the immigration minister outlines a bid for secondary legislation in the new parliamentary session starting this autumn to abolish appeal rights for family visitors.
The Guardian notes that more than 420,000 visa applications were made for temporary visits by close relatives of British families last year. Of these, 350,000 family visit visas were granted and 88,000 were refused. More than 63,000 of those who were refused, appealed against the decision and around 36% were successful in their appeal.
Senior Whitehall officials are said to have warned that the proposed move to scrap appeals is considered highly controversial, particularly within Britain's Asian communities, as well as being legally risky.
The Guardian notes that appeal rights for family visit visas have a "charged political history." When Jack Straw reintroduced appeal rights in 2000, he told the Commons that MPs "with Afro-Carribbean or south Asian constituents knew at first hand the strong sense of injustice that the abolition of the right of appeal has engendered amongst many of our constituents".
Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/09/overseas-relatives-british-families-visa-appeal?CMP=twt_gu
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