Visa waiver programme aimed at boosting tourism

the_syco

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/visa-waiver-programme-aimed-at-boosting-tourism-510982.html

A short-term stay visa waiver programme, allowing visitors from 16 countries who clear immigration in the UK come to Ireland without needing further clearance, has been launched.

The programme is due to commence tomorrow and will run up to the end of October 2012, as a pilot, taking in the period of the London Olympics.

The countries involved are India, Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

It was also announced, as part of the initiative, that nationals of these countries, who are long-term legal residents in the UK, will have the cost of an Irish visa waived should they wish to visit Ireland. It is estimated that there are up to 1 million people in this category in the UK.

It is hoped that the scheme willl result in a major tourism boost, especially during next year's Olympics, and expand the English language school business here.

The scheme was announced today by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, Transport and Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar and Justice Minister Alan Shatter.

Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Gilmore described the programme “as an excellent example of a joined-up Government response to what is a genuine constraint to the growth of Irish tourism in new and emerging markets such as China, India and the Gulf.”

“The visa waiver has a major role to play in boosting our tourism industry, stimulating job creation and bringing economic recovery," Minister Varadkar added.

"It will allow us to attract new visitors from fast-growing countries like India, China and the Gulf states. These countries are only just becoming aware of Ireland as a tourism destination.

"The waiver will allow holidaymakers from these nations to travel seamlessly to Ireland from the UK."

I do wonder how many people will decide to stay long term once they come over? Hopefully not many as it seems there's not many jobs out there....

iPlop

the_syco wrote: »

I do wonder how many people will decide to stay long term once they come over? Hopefully not many as it seems there's not many jobs out there....

All of them, this must be the new nama plan to fill ghost estates.

bnt

Lets see how many people read as far as the "clear immigration in the UK" bit. This change allows piggy-backing on the UK system, relying on Her Majesty's Customs to screen visitors.

mandrake04

"It will allow us to attract new visitors from fast-growing countries like India, China and the Gulf states. These countries are only just becoming aware of Ireland as a tourism destination.

These countries have already been deemed HR countries (High Risk) of overstaying & working illegally by Australian immigration.

Richard Hillman

Will we also be building an extention to Mosney?

Zebra3

As it stands, what's to stop them crossing the border from NI?

FatherLen

look if people wanted to come into this coutry illegally, they could do it with a bath pillow and a sheet of cardboard. this is not going to make a difference to the number of illegal foreign nationals.

conorhal

bnt wrote: »

Lets see how many people read as far as the "clear immigration in the UK" bit. This change allows piggy-backing on the UK system, relying on Her Majesty's Customs to screen visitors.

Because they have no problem with over-stayers in the UK at all, at all?
I also don't trust that they will not pull an 'Italy' on us either and clear people with a ticket to Ireland because they figure that they are not going to be the UK's problem.

There is a rogues gallery of problem nations among the those listed.
Are there high spending stable economies like Singapore and Australia on the list? (I don't know, just wondering, perhaps they have alternative arrangements).
This smacks of yet another poorly regulated, badly policed half baked measure that will inevitibly backfire. It will certainly be interesting to see the asylum statistics and immigration breakdown post implementation.

On the other hand, if they have cleared UK immigration then it should be possible under the Dublin Convention to send them back to the UK if they claim asylum because legally speaking that is the first place that they cleared immigration. Of course does not count for those that destroy all documents on arrival or simply dissapear, and we have an abysmal track record in Ireland when it comes to border control and monitoring overstayers, we don't even have records or statistics about who comes in and out of the country, the Aussies on the other hand know to a man exactly how many people have overstayed their visa.

Amhran Nua

Did the US, Greece, or Australia have problems with illegal immigrants overstaying when they ran the Olympics? If not, why should we or the UK?

syklops

They would be better off reducing the duty and VAT for EU citizens visiting Ireland. It would make us much more attractive to our closer neighbours. You also have to wonder how much money a visiting Uzbekistani tourist will spend here. My bet is not a lot.

Ireland is a really expensive destination for other 1st world countries. It must seem like a fortune to some nationalities to visit Ireland.

giant_midget

Christ amlighty...there is enough mutants in this country as it is...hope the Gardai have an increased budget to cope with the extra crime..

ejmaztec

giant_midget wrote: »

Christ amlighty...there is enough mutants in this country as it is...hope the Gardai have an increased budget to cope with the extra crime..

No doubt a high-profile Garda presence will mean that the tourists won't get robbed, not by criminals anyway.

El Horseboxo

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Did the US, Greece, or Australia have problems with illegal immigrants overstaying when they ran the Olympics? If not, why should we or the UK?

I know during the winter Olympics in Vancouver a lot of migrant workers that came for the event ended up over staying their visa. Lead to problems in the economy and jobs market afterwards.

Dyr

f**k me...just when you thought it was safe to go back into macdonalds

syklops

El Horseboxo wrote: »

I know during the winter Olympics in Vancouver a lot of migrant workers that came for the event ended up over staying their visa. Lead to problems in the economy and jobs market afterwards.

Ah so the problems in the economy can all be attributed to the pesky immigrants.

El Weirdo

giant_midget wrote: »

Christ amlighty...there is enough mutants in this country as it is...hope the Gardai have an increased budget to cope with the extra crime..

Says the giant midget.

giant_midget

El Weirdo wrote: »

Says the giant midget.

haha point taken, Im 6ft tall + not really a midget... El Wanker

Mena

I'll bite on this one, since I'm on a day off with nothing to do. Right, so the concern seems to be that giving these countries a visa waiver will flood us with illegal immigrants. Despite the fact they'll already need to pre-qualify via the UK visa systems...

Lets take a look at some of the countries that have, for a long time, been visa free for travel to Ireland.

Let's start with my native homeland. South Africa. Been visa free since man drew arbitrary lines on a map and called them borders. 49 million visa free travelers. I've been here 12 years now and don't know even 1 South African here (though there are a few I imagine).

We could look at the States as well I guess, what's that? 307 million ish. Though to be fair, you're not going to get tons of illegals from the states as they're pretty much first world.

Lets head downwards then shall we?

Venezuela. 28 million or so. Visa free.
Guatemala... 14 million,
Mexico. 107 million.
South Korea - 48 million.
Singapore - 5 million.

So, to conclude. Since these countries are all visa free, we should have around 558 million immigrants into the country. Ok to be fair, remove the States, so that leaves us with 251 million immigrants. No wonder the damn traffic gets so bad!

(ok, this mild rant may have been directed more at posters on another site concerned that there will now be some 2.5 billion illegal immigrants into Ireland based on the visa waiver programme, but meh, I did say I was bored! )

dr.bollocko

giant_midget wrote: »

Christ amlighty...there is enough mutants in this country as it is...hope the Gardai have an increased budget to cope with the extra crime..

Banned.

mandrake04

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Did the US, Greece, or Australia have problems with illegal immigrants overstaying when they ran the Olympics? If not, why should we or the UK?

During the 2006 commonwealth games in Melbourne 14 athletes from Sierra Leone and 9 from Cameroon went out for a run and never came back.

Cathaoirleach

Zebra3 wrote: »

As it stands, what's to stop them crossing the border from NI?

Garda checkpoints. They do actualy stop busses from time to time. I'm sure they do the same on the train.

southsiderosie

Zebra3 wrote: »

As it stands, what's to stop them crossing the border from NI?

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Garda checkpoints. They do actualy stop busses from time to time. I'm sure they do the same on the train.

When I was in Belfast last summer, I took the bus back and forth six times and it was stopped by immigration crossing into the Republic twice. And they do check passports very carefully - I'm a US citizen and the guard started in on me about my previous expired stamps before he saw my new entry stamp. The second time, they pulled a group of four young Asians off of the bus because they only had a visa for the UK, not for Ireland.

I think it makes sense to do the visa waver for people who have already been vetted by the UK - they have the most hostile immigration agents I have ever dealt with, so if they deign to let you in I'd wager you will probably not cause too many problems! Plus screening is time consuming and expensive, so why not farm it out to the neighbors?