New requirement for entry to the UK: Tuberculosis test
30 May 2012
Last week the Home Office announced the introduction of a pre-entry tuberculosis screening programme to cover migrants wishing to enter the UK for more than six months from 67 countries including China, Russia, South Africa and India, amongst others. This will be introduced over the next 18 months and the UKBA have announced (29 May 2012, Latest News and Updates) that for some of the listed countries the requirement will not be introduced until 2013.
The UKBA’s news update quotes immigration minister Damian Green as stating that a third of the world’s population is carrying tuberculosis and it is currently at its highest level in the UK for 30 years. Research has claimed to show that non-UK born people accounted for three quarters of all new TB cases diagnosed.
This introduction comes as a result of a review conducted by the UKBA with support from the Department of Health and the Health Protection Agency and is intended to help "save lives”, although one cannot help but think that the greater emphasis is on the contention that it will save taxpayers more than £40 million over the next 10 years.
The ministerial statement of 21 May 2012 states that TB rates in the UK are stable but compare unfavourably with other developed nations and accepts that the complex nature of the disease means that TB screening "can only make a limited contribution to TB control in the UK. One third of the world’s population is estimated to have latent TB. A minority will develop the disease in its active form at some point in their lives but it is currently impossible to establish through screening if this is likely to occur in any individual case. Most foreign-born TB patients only develop the disease in its active form years after arrival in the UK” (emphasis added).
The announcement by the UKBA makes it clear that the cost of pre-screening and subsequent treatment will be met by those applying to come into the UK. A full course of treatment takes about six months and the applicant will then be required to pay for a further test.
Given the limited contribution screening will make to TB control, the impossibility of screening establishing whether latent TB will become active and the extra cost burden on the applicant, is this in reality just another hurdle to entry to the UK? Would the justification be the same for an applicant who has private medical insurance?
The UKBA’s website continues to state (as of 30 May 2012):
"If you have TB and need to come to the UK urgently
If you have an urgent need to travel here for compassionate reasons, you will need to give us full details of the reasons. We will take these into consideration when we decide whether to give you a visa.
You are likely to have an urgent and compassionate reason for travel if you have a close family member in the UK who is seriously ill, or your travel to the UK cannot be delayed for exceptional reasons.
If we do allow you to come to the UK, we will expect you to begin treatment for TB when you arrive here”.
It is not clear whether this discretion will remain or whether children under 11 years old, holders of diplomatic passports travelling on official business or on a posting, returning residents and certificate of entitlement holders will remain exempt from testing as has previously been the case (see entry clearance guidance MED2.3).
