UK imposes visa restrictions on DRC

BRITAIN has imposed visa restrictions on nationals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the country's "poor cooperation" on returning illegal migrants, the UK government said.

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Further measures, up to a complete halt on visas, will follow unless cooperation "rapidly improves", Britain's interior ministry said in a statement at the weekend.

The DRC said at the weekend it has started discussions with Britain to resolve the matter.

The curbs mean that DRC VIPs and decision makers will lose preferential treatment on visas, while fast-track visa processing has been revoked for all DRC nationals.

They come after Britain's interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, in November threatened the DRC, Angola and Namibia with visa bans unless they accepted the return of irregular migrants.

The interior ministry said the three African countries had "continually frustrated" efforts to remove thousands of illegal migrants and criminals.