An integrated plan is being evolved to ensure the quick disposal for the visa applications from Pakistan including Azad Kashmir seeking entry into United Kingdom. British Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Immigration, M.P Chris Mullin disclosed this while addressing a meeting here late Wednesday, which was arranged by Honorary British Consul in Mirpur Azad Kashmir Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed in honour of the seven-member British Delegation led by him.
Chris Mullin said the tragic episode of 9/11 caused immense problems including some delay vis-a-vis disposal of the visa applications by the British High Commission, adding those problems were later gradually resolved to facilitate the applicants in minimum possible time.
Mullin said that 0.16 million visa applications were disposed off by the end of December last year under the spirit to dispose off the applications in shortest possible time. Besides, 13 thousand applications for student visas were also disposed off during last year, he added.
Mullin said no visa application, fulfilling all prevalent rules and regulations besides carrying the valid documents, was being rejected.
He said continued massive increase in the visa applications and the less number of the related staff members were the main cause of certain delay in the process for disposal of the visa applications.
He further said the lack of sufficient evidence about the income resources of the wife and husband was also the main cause of delay in disposal of the permanent settlement cases. He, however, said that in case of serious illness and emergency, the visa applications were being disposed off within 24 hours.
The Under Secretary for immigration said that 700 to 1,500 hundred visa applications were being received by the British HC at present.
Referring to the growing issue of the forced marriage of the Pakistan/Kashmir born British women, Mullin emphasised the need for taking necessary steps to discourage that exercise, which was also contrary to the human rights.
Mullin said the incidents of forced marriages, violence on women and the ultimate result of divorces of women were the matters of grave concern for the British and Pakistani governments. He also called for discouraging the trend of submission of fake documents for obtaining the visa.
Speaking on this occasion, Honorary British Consul in Mirpur Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed that after 9/11, when there were problems of security and Britain withdrew its staff from the British HC, people from that area faced great hardships.
He said since now when the security situation had improved, a lot and almost all of British HC staff was back into their offices, still there was a problem of time period consumed by the British HC for the issuance of visa to the aspirants. "We do understand the high number of applications, but I think strategy must be evolved to overcome this problem," he said.
The Honorary British Consul expressed gratitude of the British delegation for visiting Mirpur to have first hand knowledge of problems being faced by the British National Kashmiris and other families.
Comments
Comments are closed.