Visas: Points-based System

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Thursday 10th March 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[The Earl of Clancarty]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the points-based visa system introduced in November 2008 as it affects non-European Union artists, performers, academics and others intending to work in the United Kingdom.

[The Earl of Clancarty]

My Lords, I am very glad that we have the opportunity today to debate the points-based visa system and the effect that it has had since its introduction in November 2008. I thank the Library for providing a briefing pack. I also thank the Visual Arts and Galleries Association, the National Campaign for the Arts, English PEN, and the campaigning group the Manifesto Club, whose painstaking documentation of the numerous, often humiliating, experiences of non-EU artists, academics and students over the past two years provides an important ongoing contribution. I also thank the Greater London Authority, which last month commissioned a survey on this issue and has made available to me its conclusions, which I have the privilege of sharing with this House and making public for the first time.

I look forward to hearing the speeches of noble Lords, some of whom are experts in this field and have been pressing this issue for longer than I have. In addressing the points-based system directly, I argue that we go to the heart of the problem. I find it extraordinary that such a major change to our immigration practice, with such strong cultural implications, should have occurred only through altering existing Immigration Rules without any necessity for debate in Parliament.

As an artist myself, my particular concerns are with tier 5: that is, temporary visits that are far and away, at least officially, the main route by which non-EU artists and academics enter this country. These could include artists present for the opening of an exhibition, poets attending festivals or musicians playing concerts, with visits ranging from a few days to a few weeks. The GLA survey discovered that a quarter of artists and academics were from outside the EU and, of those, 98 per cent were applicants under tier 5.

The irony of the new system is that while it appears simpler, the process of making it tighter and stricter has led to an often overwhelming bureaucracy not only for those applying to come to the UK but for their hosts. The new criteria include proving that one has the equivalent of £800 in a bank account for a minimum period of three months, applying in person, supplying biometric details, paying an individual fee and having a sponsor who also has to pay at least £400. The application process is therefore lengthy and tortuous and is often not completed in time. Many applicants can be refused for no obvious reason.

Let me start with this example from Sarah Perks, programme director at the Cornerhouse, Manchester. She says:

“In April 2010 we presented an ... exhibition called ‘Contemporary Art Iraq’, the product of several years’ research and planning including my visit to Iraq and a collaboration with a small organisation Artrole ... who foster relationships between UK, America and Iraq. We invited three of the artists and two academics to the opening of the exhibition and to take part in our ... symposium. We would have liked to invite more but the process ... necessitated sending the group to Beirut for three weeks to get their visas. The group were a mixture of backgrounds, gender and ages. Everything was done in time and with the assistance of ... solicitors. All the visas were declined on the basis of insufficient financial information as most had letters from their employers but not bank account statements (as is fairly standard in Iraq at present). We had already booked their ... accommodation and would provide them with enough money for their visit. So ... despite the hope of cultural exchange, we ended up with no artists in attendance who are currently working in Iraq, and significantly out of pocket because the procedure meant ... booking all their travel to the UK before applying for a visa”.

I would like to say that this is an isolated case, but it certainly is not. Artists denied entry to Britain include Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov, the Chinese artist Huang Xu and the great Cannes prize-winning film director Abbas Kiorastami, despite his being invited in 2009 to Britain to direct “Cosi fan Tutte” at the English National Opera. After twice being fingerprinted, he gave up in disgust, vowing never to visit the UK again, yet saying how much of a real and indeed deserved welcome he receives in other European countries. In November, the cellist Kristin Ostling from the Chicago-based string quartet Carpe Diem, which was invited to play at a music conference in Leeds, was detained at customs before—in the words of the conference organiser, Derek Scott—being,

“bullied and rudely questioned for eight hours”,

and then sent back to America. The reason given was that she was taking work from British musicians, even though her attendance, which would have included three recitals, was unpaid. Her ability as part of this quartet is unique—something that is indeed true of all artists. Perhaps the Minister will note that this single incident has had significant reverberations in America in both the musical and academic spheres.

While these cases are relatively high profile, those most affected by the system remain the poorest and often most geographically distant artists. The NCA has drawn attention to,

“Malian musicians who have had to travel thousands of miles to their nearest visa application centre in Dakar, Senegal, and then had a ... wait of up to 10 days while their applications were sent for processing in Banjul, The Gambia”.

Perhaps the Minister can throw some light on whether such Kafkaesque situations have now improved. Also, we will never hear about those artists who, either because of the sheer difficulties of the procedures, the lack of money or our growing reputation for unfriendliness, understandably fail to apply.

Let me turn to the arts organisations that are expected to act as sponsors. Here, the conclusions of the GLA survey are pertinent. They are, in order of significance, legal hurdles, increased administration tasks, and last-minute changes or cancellation of events, and they are all significant. One small theatre states:

“The worry of not knowing whether we will have to cancel a sold out event two days before, because the artist has been refused entry on some paperwork technicality, hugely discourages us from booking overseas artists due to the financial risks involved. This is highly detrimental to the quality and diversity of the UK cultural sector”.

Forty-two per cent of arts organisations in the survey feel that they will work with fewer non-EU artists and academics as a result of the changes to the system; 64 per cent say that the PBS has increased stress associated with event planning.

One of the things that the sponsorship rule is doing is to sow seeds of mistrust where none previously existed. As with universities, sponsors are now in effect expected to snoop on the artists in their charge. The Place theatre in London, which puts on up to 90 contemporary dance productions a year, tells me that it has, embarrassingly, to check the paperwork of every dancer for each production, irrespective of how established the company is or how well known to it the dancers are. The management tells me how much this “jars”—its word—with the culture of trust in contemporary dance.

English PEN says that organisations,

“do not wish to take on a role of surveillance or monitoring for their artists, which could seriously damage their working relationship”.

There are indeed a significant number of organisations both large and small that are technically breaking the law by telling visiting artists to make their own arrangements. I do not blame them for doing this. This says that the system does not work; and it does not work because it is wrong.

The current system fundamentally misunderstands the way in which the arts operate. Whether they come in on a visa or via another route, the artist never stops working. For Customs officials to try to prevent a photographer such as Alec Soth from using his camera in the country, or even, as has been the case, to try to prevent artists using paints and sketchpads while they are here, is a joke—and a surreal one at that. Nor does the system take into account the rapidity and spontaneity with which arts events are often organised.

In the GLA survey, 70 per cent of arts organisations stated that the points-based system was not the right way to limit non-EU workers. English PEN, while asking the UKBA to develop the entertainer and festival visa routes, also stated:

“A points-based system is inappropriate for temporary visits by artists”—

a view that is supported by many, including VAGA and the Contemporary Art Society.

The late Lord Strabolgi, who is greatly missed, not least in arts debates, told me last year of the singular, and at the time unusual, case of a relatively unknown Cypriot artist who, during the troubles in Cyprus, was not allowed into the UK. Lord Strabolgi fought the Government of the day and won. It seems that we have gone overnight from being a relatively welcoming country to one that is quite the opposite. Jude Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, stated in the Evening Standard of November 23 last year:

“Today we're in danger of losing our reputation as a world city if we're incapable of welcoming the world”.

A year ago, the Manifesto Club submitted a 10,000-strong petition to the previous Government that highlighted discrimination against artists from developing countries and those with a low income. The petition was signed by many in the arts world, including Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Sandy Nairne and Nicholas Hytner, as well as by Members of this House. Will the Government respond to the Manifesto Club petition, and will the Minister ponder the strength of feeling and deep concerns about these issues within the arts in Britain?

There might be a solution to some of these problems. The entertainer's visa may be expanded. Perhaps it could be called the artist’s visa, and payments of fees to artists be allowed. I understand that there is to be a review of tier 5. I hope very much that we will not see the introduction of more bureaucracy that will only discriminate further, and instead see a move towards a more flexible and progressive system.