Articles Posted in Global Immigration Stories

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Recent changes by the Government of India offer a visa-on-arrival facility to citizens of a select group of five countries, something that New Delhi had been extremely hesitant to do so far because of security concerns. The countries nominated are Singapore, Finland, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Japan. Tourists from these countries can also procure their visas from their home countries as usual. The tourist visa-on-arrival has a maximum validity of 30 days with a single entry facility and will initially be granted by the Immigration Officers only at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata airports. The ‘two month gap’ rule between two visits applies to tourists availing of the visa-on-arrival facility.

However, the restriction of the two-month gap rule does not apply to PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) or OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card-holders and foreigners holding business, employment, student and other categories of visas.

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UK Border Agency officers found the drugs, which have a UK street value of around £1.3 million, concealed in containers of nut powder in freight bound for Sydney. The consignment had originated in central America.

The find sparked an international operation involving officers from the UK Border Agency’s Criminal and Financial Investigation unit and agents from the Australian Federal Police.

Five people have been arrested in Australia following the discovery of around 33 kilos of cocaine at Heathrow Airport, London. On Friday 28 May, five people – four US citizens and one Australian national -were arrested by AFP officers in Sydney. They now face prosecution in Australia.

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For decades this city-state was known as one of the world’s most driven economies. But as Singapore recovers from recession, its residents are questioning a key part of the country’s economic model: its long-standing openness to foreigners as well as a labor force that is not always legal.

Singapore has thrown open its doors to bankers and expatriates in recent years, making it easy in many cases to establish residency and hastening the country’s emergence as an Asian version of Dubai. It also welcomed low-skilled laborers from Bangladesh and other developing countries to help man construction sites and factories.

The goal was to capture more Asian wealth and offset Singapore’s low birth rate with immigrants, spurring economic growth. But the push has also fueled discontent, turning immigration into a red-hot political issue in a country where dissent is still tightly controlled by the government.

Between 2005 and 2009, Singapore’s population surged by roughly 150,000 people a year to 5 million—among the fastest rates ever there—with 75% or more of the increase coming from foreigners. In-migration continued in 2009 despite expectations it would collapse because of the global recession.

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