UK immigration protecting borders by international co-operation

UK immigration and borders will be protected by a closer relationship than ever with foreign governments, sharing data and intelligence with enforcement agencies abroad, and ensuring that developing countries have the skills they need.

The international action plan is a joint strategy by the Home Office and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, to prevent human traffickers, forgers and foreign criminals at the source, and to also allow more circular migration between the UK and developing countries to share skills and experience.

The plan - entitled 'International challenges, international solutions: managing the movement of people and goods' - looks at proposals to allow skilled temporary residents in the UK to pause their process to citizenship so that they can return home and contribute their expertise.

This would allow developing nations the chance to benefit from these skilled workers without interfering with the workers' path to citizenship in the UK.

The UK Border Agency's successes in the past year include:

• 67,000 inadequately documented passengers stopped from boarding planes to the UK in 2008-09;
• Suspected fraudulent UK visa applications referred to police abroad, leading to more than 1,280 arrests worldwide as of September 2009;
• A team based at the British Embassy in China working with local authorities to speed up re-documentation - leading to 3,280 Chinese nationals being removed last year; AND
• More than 125 drug couriers arrested in Ghana and Jamaica in the past year, as frontline officers work with overseas authorities to stop drug couriers before they reach Britain.

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The UK Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people lodge UK Visa applications with the British Embassy.