Colombia’s president has hit back at the UK government saying his country will impose visa requirements on British citizens in response to the UK Government’s decision to impose visa rules on Colombian visitors.
The number of Colombians claiming asylum in the UK has soared, prompting the Government to impose visa rules on visitors from the country.
The changes, which came into force at 3pm on Tuesday, mean visitors from Colombia will now need a visa to travel to the UK.
Colombian nationals will also need a transit visa if they need to pass through the UK to travel on to another country.
On Tuesday evening, Colombia’s leader Gustavo Petro said his country will adopt similar rules under “the principle of reciprocity”.
He wrote in a post on X: “If the United Kingdom has reinstated the need for visas for the Colombian people, I have to say that by the principle of reciprocity, the Colombian government will ask for visas from British citizens who want to come to Colombia.”
The move means plans to allow Colombians to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) from Wednesday, for travel to the UK from January 8, will no longer be introduced.
There will be a four-week, visa-free transition period for those who have already booked travel to the UK prior to 3pm on Tuesday, where visitors are due to arrive in the UK no later than 3pm on Christmas Eve.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the decision was made in the wake of a “significant and sustained” increase in asylum claims and “high rates of refusals” of visitors at the border since November 2022.
In a written statement to Parliament, she said: “We are taking this action due to an increase in the number of Colombian nationals travelling to the UK for purposes other than those permitted under visitor rules since the visa requirement was lifted in November 2022.
“This has included a significant and sustained increase in asylum claims, and high rates of refusals at the border due to people travelling without the intention of visiting for a permitted purpose.”
The rise in claims and refusals has “added significantly to operational pressures at the border, resulting in frontline resources being diverted from other operational priorities”, Ms Cooper said, as she stressed the decision had been taken “solely for migration and border security reasons”.
“Our relationship with Colombia remains a strong and friendly one. Any decision to change a visa status is not taken lightly and we keep the border and immigration system under regular review to ensure it continues to work in the UK national interest”, she added.
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Roy Barreras, Colombia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said that more than 940 Colombians have made asylum claims in the United Kingdom this year, with some resorting to travel agencies that allegedly teach them how to cheat in their asylum applications. In 2021, only six Colombians made asylum claims in the UK, the ambassador said.
Over the past three years, hundreds of thousands of Colombians have fled to Europe and the United States. Economic stagnation and rising violence in some parts of the country, particularly from rebel groups and drug traffickers, have forced many to seek safety and opportunity abroad.
In 2022, U.S. border patrol agents conducted more than 165,000 arrests of Colombians at the Mexican border. This number decreased slightly to 155,000 in the following year.
