I’m reliably told there is a good (or bad) reason why Priti Patel and Boris Johnson refuse to allow Ukrainian refugees to apply for UK visas when they arrive in Calais. The reason? To block legal applications by asylum-seekers from other countries. 1/8
Someone who has been directly involved in UK visa operations in the past points out to me that any UK visa office in Calais would, in theory, be open to non-Ukrainian applicants (ie the Calais boat people from Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere|).
2/8
2/8
They could go to the Calais UK visa office and submit an asylum application. That’s the last thing the Home Office wants, I’m told. It would expose the cynicism and hypocrisy of Patel’s “two-tier” borders policy. 3/8
This policy is based on saying 1) asylum applications will only be processed if made officially while still abroad (but we will make that as hard as possible). 2) anyone who arrives “illegally” without having submitted an application will be jailed.
4/8
4/8
If a visa office opens in Calais, it would become easier for the “Calais migrants” of all nationalities to make applications. This would be be long and tortuous, no doubt, but it might at least discourage people from risking their lives in small boats. 5/8
Nonetheless – despite paying lip-service to the horror of drownings etc – the Home Office is, I’m told, determined to keep visa operations away from Calais to discourage the asylum seekers already camped out there.
6/8
6/8
The Home Office says that visa/asylum applications can only be made at a “recognised centre” but such centres are hard to find and use. In Fr, as in other countries, collection of applications/biometric data (but NOT the final decision) has been hived-off to private companies 7/8
In Paris it’s a company called TLS Contact in the 9th arrondissement. Applicants fill in an on-line form before going to a “collection point” where they hand over their passport. It can be many weeks before their passport is returned – sometimes with visa, often without.
8/8
8/8
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