Plans
to impose visa restrictions on Brazilian tourists have been put on hold by Home
Secretary Theresa May.
Like
US, Canadian or Australian citizens, Brazilians can visit the UK for up to six
months without a visa.
The home secretary was
considering introducing restrictions amid concerns about illegal immigration
from Brazil.
But Mrs May has shelved the plan following
protests about its impact on efforts to boost business links with the country.
Brazil is fifth in the top 10
of illegal immigrant nationalities in the UK, according to Home Office figures
for 2011, and is the only country on the list for which short-term visitors do
not need a visa.
But the government is
attempting to develop closer trading links with Brazil - seen as an emerging
economic powerhouse.
Close
relations -
A government
spokesperson said: "Brazil is an important partner for the UK and we are
investing greatly in our diplomatic and economic ties.
"We have
no current plans to impose a visa regime on Brazil."
Prime Minister David Cameron
confirmed the decision to keep visa-free access for Brazilian tourists at Prime
Minister's Questions, after a Lib Dem MP, John Thurso, warned imposing
restrictions could harm the tourist trade.
Mr Cameron told MPs: "The National Security Council met
recently to consider some of these border issues and it has decided not to put
these visas on to Brazilian nationals.
Brazil is the
only one of the four so-called fast-growing BRIC nations - which also includes
Russia, India and China - to have no visa restrictions for short visits to the
UK.
But campaign
group Migration Watch said the government's decision appeared to have been
taken for "all the wrong reasons".
Simply
wrong –
"Three
years ago there was significant abuse from Brazilians who were coming here for
short stays, or as visitors, and staying on," Migration Watch
vice-chairman Alp Mehmet told the BBC.
"Serious
consideration was given at that time to visas, and I assume the situation has
not changed."
“It doesn't send out any sort
of signal at all. The number of business visas from all over the world,
including countries where there is a visa regime, has gone up.”
Mr
Mehmet added: "Of course we want to make it as unproblematic as possible
for people to come here and spend their money and have a good time."But the answer was to introduce simple, workable visas rather than continue to have no visas at all, he argued.
In 2008, the then Labour government warned Brazil and 10 other countries they faced restrictions on short-term visas unless they took steps to improve passport checks and "significantly reduce" abuses.
The following year, visas were introduced for visitors from South Africa, Venezuela, Bolivia, Lesotho and Swaziland.
But Brazil, Namibia, Malaysia, Botswana, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius continued to enjoy visa-free access for short visits.
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