LONDON // UK Border Agency staff based in Abu Dhabi might be discriminating unlawfully against Pakistanis applying for visas to visit Britain, according to a report published today.
In the report, John Vine, the government's independent chief inspector of the border agency, accuses staff based at the British consular "hub" in Abu Dhabi, which handles all visa applications from Pakistan, of making it more difficult for people to enter the UK from Pakistan than from GCC states.
There were also "worrying levels of inconsistent and sometimes poor decision making" and a "worrying lack of confidence in the work of the visa section - particularly in Pakistan visa operations", Mr Vine says.
The handling of Pakistani visas for the UK was switched from Islamabad to Abu Dhabi in 2008 because of the security situation in Pakistan.
Last year, 91,350 visa applications from Pakistan were approved and 76,900 rejected - a 41 per cent rejection rate, second only to Nigeria.
Mr Vine says that inspectors found that staff were "applying higher evidential requirements for entry to the UK to customers from Pakistan and this was not made clear to them".
