UK plans to name barred foreigners

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

London

Oct. 26: Britain has decided to name radical Muslim preachers, animal rights extremists, neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers who are refused entry into the country. Foreigners who are not issued a visa by Britain on ground of national security will be included in the list.

Home secretary Jacqui Smith will this week reveal the Labour government’s plan to publish quarterly lists of foreigners barred from entering the UK. "These tough new measures will clamp down on those people intent on stirring up tensions by encouraging violence and hatred in our country by preventing them entering the UK," she told the Sunday Telegraph. "I am determined to stop those who foster extremism and hatred through preaching violent messages in our communities from coming to the UK."

A total of 230 foreigners, including 79 radical preachers, have been barred from entering the UK since 2005 London bomb blasts but their identities are revealed only when they publicly complain about the decision. "Coming to the UK is a privilege and I don’t want to extend that privilege to individuals who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life," the home secretary said.

Britain intends to share names of foreigners not granted visas on grounds of national security or terrorist threat with other countries too and these names will be put on a "watch list."

"They will also be placed on international watch lists which tell other countries that they have been banned and why they were not allowed in," the home office said. They will consider names of rejected visa applicants for public identification, but the process will not be automatic and each incident will be considered on a case-by-case basis, a spokesman said. Offenders will be permanently barred from UK unless they can persuade the authorities that they are no longer involved in stirring up hatred.