US trying to restrict entry of Britons of Pak origin: report

NEW YORK: The United States is reportedly seeking to toughen the visa requirements for Britons of Pakistani origin in view of a number of terror plots in the UK involving members of the community.

In recent months, the New York Times reported, the homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff has opened talks with the British government on how to curb the access of British citizens of Pakistani origin to the US.

At the moment, the British are resisting, fearing that restrictions on the group of Britons would incur a backlash from a population that has always sided with the ruling Labour Party, it said.

The Americans say they are hesitant to push too hard and embarrass their staunch ally in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair, as he prepares to step down from office.

Among the options that have been put on the table, the report said quoting British officials, was the most onerous option to Britain, that of cancelling the entire visa waiver programme that allows all Britons entry to the United States without a visa.

Another option, politically fraught as it is, would be to single out Britons of Pakistani origin, requiring them to make visa applications for the United States, the paper said.

Rather than impose any visa restrictions, the British government has told Washington it would prefer that the Americans simply deport Britons who failed screening once they arrived at an airport in the United States, British officials said.

The British also screen at their end, and share intelligence with the Americans.

But Washington feels strongly, Chertoff was quoted as saying, that it has the right to build controls against terrorists from Britain who do not have a prior criminal record.

For its part, the paper says, the British government looks with dismay at the frequency with which Britons travel to their ancestral land of Pakistan "an estimated 400,000 trips a yea" where a small minority link up with extremist groups and acquire training in weapons and explosives.

Foreign office officials were quoted as saying they have discussed measures with the Pakistani Embassy in London, which grants Pakistani passports to Britons of Pakistani descent, to consider tightening the rules for travel to Pakistan.