Carrot& Stick

April 01, 2008 (LBO) – Tight new immigration regulations that came into effect on April 01, will ban rule breakers from visiting Britain for ten years, but illegal immigrants would also be an amnesty leave, the UK High Commission (embassy) in Colombo said. "We will now prevent anyone who has previously broken our immigration laws from going to the UK for up to 10 years," the high commission said in a statement.

"Anyone who worked illegally, overstayed for more than 28 days, travelled illegally or used deception in a visa application will be subject to this ban."

An amnesty is also being offered till October 01, for anyone illegally staying in the UK to leave the country voluntarily. They will not face the ban.

The embassy said UK issued over two million visas a year to travellers. A finger printing process is now used to identify people who have broken rules earlier or have applied under a different name. .