By Emeka Aginam,Asst. Online Editor
While restating its resolve to ban visa applicants with fraudulent documents for 10 years , there seems to be tough days ahead for visa applicants with fake documents   as the British Commission  in Nigeria has  supported  Nigerian Police with fraud  document  detection machine  to tackle  fraud in  visa application process.

Bob Dewar

The equipement which has alreday been given to Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, according to the IT experts,   is expected  to stem the ugly trend .

To fully achieve this, the  United Kingdom High Commission has last week in Lagos  donated  e-detector machine to the Nigerian Police force to tackle the use of fraudulent documents in visa applications.

The British High Commissioner, Mr Bob Dewar, while handing over the equipment being provided by the UK Government to the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force said that the  equipment is expected to  enhance the capacity of the Nigeria Police to track down those manufacturing and supplying fraudulent documents.

“The partnership will support UK efforts to ensure that only legitimate travelers can travel to the UK” he added.
The British Deputy High Commission, according to  him has been working in partnership with the Special Fraud Unit, to help them tackle the use of fraudulent documents in visa applications.

“This partnership has now been strengthened through supplying a document fraud. We welcome our close partnership with the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force to tackle document fraud.

“ We are keen to strengthen this co_operation even further and hope that the equipment and vehicle that is being provided will allow the Nigeria Police Force to carry out effective and targeted exercises against individuals and groups using fraudulent documents in the visa application process, eventually leading to their prosecution. We are committed to making this partnership a success.

“The message that we want to send out is clear. The UK welcomes legitimate travelers to the UK and those who will benefit the UK through study, business and tourism.

“ But we are equally clear that those seek to apply for a visa on a fraudulent basis will not be allowed to travel  and could face a ban of up to 10 years for using fraudulent documents.”

It would be recalled that the Operations Manager/International Group/UK Border Agency/Visa Section/British High Commission/Abuja/Nigeria, Mr  Jason Ivory had earlier in an online interview with Vanguard Computers & e-Business said that the commission aims to  turn around  majority of the applications  receive within 15 working days, adding that in  April 2009, the UK Border Agency in Nigeria processed 13,343 applications, with 13,283 being dealt with in May 2009 and 18,306 in June 2009.

“Applicants have the option of applying online or by  application form collected at the application center. The number of people using our online application facility is currently very small. We do encourage our customers to use the online application facility as this enables them to book an appointment at the VFS Visa Application Centre (VAC) and submit their application in person.

“We work very closely with our IT team in the UK and locally to ensure the system works to its full potential. From January to March 2009, UKBA processed 4,744 student applications. From April to July ,  2009, we processed 1,360 student applications.

With the  point based system recently introduced requiring that students sponsors pay the maintenance fees into the student’s account before application, he said that initially, the commission had  witnessed a drop in the number of people applying for student visas under tier 4 of the Points Based System, not only in Nigeria but globally.