§ The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes)The Government are firmly committed to maintaining effective immigration controls while at the same time ensuring that genuine passengers are able to pass through our ports with the least possible inconvenience.
The number of people arriving at UK airports who are found to be inadmissible is unacceptably high. Certain nationals, who are required to hold a valid visa to enter the UK, may transit this country for up to 24 hours without a visa.
This provides a relatively easy and inexpensive way for those who are intent on circumventing our immigration controls to do so. We have already introduced measures to tackle this problem with the introduction of a direct airside transit visa requirement for 16 nationalities on 24 June. We now need to take further action and have identified six nationalities (Angola, Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Lebanon and Pakistan) as posing a particular problem. Therefore from 00.01 hours on Thursday 16 October nationals of those six countries wishing to transit the UK will require a visa to do so. To avoid undue hardship for those who had already made their travel plans, we have agreed to operate a grace period. Until 23.59 hours on Monday 20 October any transit passenger who bought their ticket on or before 15 October will not be refused entry solely on the basis of not holding a valid transit visa. Also, any person on the return leg of a journey they commenced before 16 October and who passed through the UK on the outward leg of their journey will be allowed to transit the UK without a visa until 23.59 on 12 November.
In parallel with those measures we are introducing changes that will allow certain groups of low risk passenger who would normally require a transit visa to be exempt from such a requirement if they are in possession of specific documents. This will include those who are in possession of a valid US or Canadian visa or certain types of residence permits, long-stay visas for entry to an EEA state, or the EU common format residence permit.
We have also decided to remove the requirement for nationals of Croatia, Libya and Slovakia to hold a visa when transiting the UK for up to 24 hours. Finally, holders of diplomatic or service passports issued by the People's Republic of China, and holders of diplomatic or official passports issued by India will also be exempt from the requirement to hold a visa when transiting the UK for up to 24 hours.