British High Commissioner dismisses Olympics visa scam

Rejecting the report published by The Sun, British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Adam Thomson has said that there was no evidence found that any citizen attempted to go United Kingdom through the Olympic passport scam.

While addressing a press conference at the National Press Club (NPC), the British envoy made it clear that Britain didn’t want to malign Pakistan through the visa scandal.

Although he rejected the visa scam, he termed Pakistan as a global leader in visa forgery. He noted, “Unfortunately, you people are world leaders in visa scam. Forgery is a strong industry here.”

He said that visa fraud was a deep-rooted industry in the country, adding that more than 4,000 visa forgery cases had been identified in the past year alone.

The British High Commissioner, however, said that Britain could stop anyone who attempted to enter the country using illegal and forged travelling documents.

Thomson remarked, “It takes athletes or officials several months to become part of the contingent. It was a practice that was over long ago. It is totally absurd to believe that unconcerned individuals could sneak into Olympic contingent. Getting accreditation is a lengthy process that requires months of scrutiny. It is almost impossible to become a part of contingent nearer to the start of Games”

The British envoy further said that no passport system in the world was above some kind of omission but they were quite satisfied with NADRA (National Database and Regulatory Authority).

In his view, the British government took strict security measures on the eve of Olympics to avoid any untoward incident.

Replying to a query, the high commissioner said that those who wanted to attain British visa should directly consult the British High Commission in Pakistan rather fake visa agents and advisories.

Commenting on a meeting between him and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar he said, “We talked about the news, which was published in ‘The Sun’ regarding fake passport scandal and investigation continued on this matter”.

He made it clear that athletes from all over the world participated in Olympics and visas had been issued to them per the visa policy and under a specific system.

He also pointed out that there was a large number of Pakistanis staying illegally in UK to seek political asylum; hence, it was a serious issue for both countries to work out accordingly.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=29731

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jul 27 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.