ANNEX
Statistics on elderly
relatives
Numbers of visitors from India and Pakistan
1. A general perception is that there are thousands
of parents, grandparents and elderly relatives of people living
here who want to come from the Indian subcontinent to visit or
join them in the UK. Dame Elizabeth Anson, the independent monitor
of visit visa refusals, contributes to this myth about elderly
visitors by stating (paras 1.12 and 4.21 of her 1996 report) that
"about 30%" of visit applications in India and Islamabad
are from elderly people.
2. The Home Office Control of immigration:
statistics, UK 1996 (Cm 3737) states that in 1996 156,840
visas for temporary purposes were issued to citizens of India
and Pakistan. Some of these will have been students; 6,490 students
from those countries were given leave to enter in 1996, but 30%
of 150,000 is an implausibly huge figure of 45,000 elderly relatives
applying as visitors. 195,700 people from India and Pakistan were
admitted as "ordinary visitors" in 1996.
3. I asked a PQ about visit visa applications
from people over 65 on 9 December 1997. Different information
was available for New Delhi and Islamabad. In 1996, 3,645 visit
visa applications were made in Islamabad by people over 65 but
the numbers refused or granted were not given. The average refusal
rate in Islamabad is 1 in 5, which would mean visas would have
been issued to 2,916 people, but it is probable that fewer were
issued. New Delhi only has figures for 1996 and 1997, and states
that 2,647 elderly people were granted visit visas in 1996. But
4,801 applied, and 991 were refused, so this is a refusal rate
of nearly 1 in 4 of applications decided. In 1997, to the end
of November, 3,394 were granted and 439 refused, a rate of 1 in
9, and nearer the average of 1 in 10. In any case, the total of
applications was well under 10,000.
Numbers applying for settlement
4. Dame Elizabeth also expresses concern about
"older people who have been issued with visit visas [who]
have failed to leave the UK and have apparently used the quick
and relatively cheaper visit visa to avoid applying for a settlement
visa which may require more detailed enquiries" (para 2.14).
She states that "it is only right to point out that the reason
why many are refused on the Asian subcontinent is that they apply
for settlement in the UK once they join their families here"
(para 4.21).
5. The Home Office statistics on immigration
for 1996 state that 350 Indian parents and grandparents and 230
Pakistani were allowed to settle after arrival in the UK on some
other basis, out of 1,330 in total for the whole world; there
were also another 100 "unspecified dependants". A letter
from Baroness Symons to me, of 31 October 1997, states that 700
Indians and 1,020 Pakistanis were allowed to settle after arrival
for some other purpose in 1996. The letter implies that these
are all parents and grandparents. The extra people are much more
likely to be those who married in the UK after entering for another
purpose, for example students or visitors, or failed asylum-seekers,
than elderly parents and grandparents.
6. I realise that the visa, admission and settlement
figures cannot be directly compared, as grants of settlement in
1996 may relate to people given leave to enter in 1995 or earlier.
However these figures show that few visitors do gain settlement
in the UK at present. There is no justification for the higher
refusal rate for visit entry clearance or the suspicion and difficulty
that elderly people suffer.
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