Scientists ring alarm bells over UK’s tough visa requirements
The UK risks severely damaging its reputation as an international centre of scientific expertise if it does not change its stringent visa requirements in the run-up to Brexit, industry leaders warned.
In a letter to the UK home secretary, a renowned researcher threatened to hold future science summits abroad, a move he said would damage the country’s international standing – and not only in science.
Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was speaking after at least 17 delegates, mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa, were denied short-term visas to attend a major conference on female health in London this week.
Depriving attendees of the expert knowledge of citizens from low and middle-income countries would deny the UK vital knowledge, Mr Piot told Home Secretary Sajid Javid in a letter.
“Our school is considering moving the locations of many of our large international meetings outside the UK so that valued global experts can participate more easily,” he said.
He warned Mr Javid the current “restrictive” criteria for short-term business visas would only deter organisations from holding similar events in the UK at a time when the country should be “open for business”.
For the Nobel prizewinner Venki Ramakrishnan, the issue extended beyond science to the UK’s international standing as a whole.
“Some of the debate around Brexit is sending out a signal that the UK is no longer international in its outlook.
“When the Home Office stops invited experts from outside the EU from coming to the UK, that signal is reinforced,” said Mr Ramakrishnan, who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 and is also president of the Royal Society.
“The visa system that has excluded these scientists may well be applied to the rest of the EU after Brexit – that could further worsen the international reputation of the UK,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Piot said he was gravely concerned the current visa application process continued to prevent bright young academics from participating in conferences and imparting their vital knowledge.
“If the UK wants to establish itself as a global hub for health and science, the current visa restrictions represent a significant threat to that goal,” he wrote.
Since the UK voted to leave the EU, the scientific community has outlined concerns that it could be affected, with Mr Ramakrishnan especially vocal.
He has warned of the dangers of a “no deal” Brexit and said the UK had little to gain from leaving the EU.
Speaking before Thursday’s conference, he said: “Global challenges require global solutions and that means you need people, with their ideas and information, to be able to come together.”