Not paid your NHS bill? You’re barred! Health tourists to be denied visas to enter Britain

November 3, 2016

Non-EU citizens applying for a family visa could be blocked if they owe the NHS more than £500
Those already in Britain may not be allowed to extend a permit or apply to remain until their debt is paid
The measures are being unveiled in a Home Office crackdown today
Nigerian woman Bimbo Ayelabola, who cost taxpayers £145,000 when she had quintuplets on the NHS, said she was never billed for the treatment

Ian Drury, Home Affairs Editor For The Daily Mail

Published:
20:30 EDT, 2 November 2016

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Updated:
04:11 EDT, 3 November 2016

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Thousands of migrants could be barred from Britain under a crackdown on health tourism.

Any non-EU citizen applying for a family visa to join a relative in the UK could be blocked at the border if they owe the NHS more than £500 for medical treatment.

If they are already in Britain, they may not be allowed to extend a permit or apply for permission to remain until their debt is paid in full.

The measures being unveiled by the Home Office today are an extension of rules covering visitors on other visas.

Left us with a £145,000 bill: Bimbo Ayelabola with her quintuplets, which were paid for by the NHS

They mean the spouse or partner of a person living in the UK would not be allowed back in if they have previously fled without paying for NHS treatment.

The crackdown will also cover foreign ex-soldiers who fought in the British Army, such as Gurkhas and those from the Commonwealth, if they seek to enter the country while owing the NHS money.

A report by the National Audit Office, the spending watchdog, revealed last week the NHS collects just half of the £500million a year owed by foreign patients.

By law, only those ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK – and have lived here for at least six months – are eligible for free treatment, operations and scans.

But thousands of overseas visitors who are treated on the NHS fly home without paying, contributing to the service’s £2billion debt mountain.

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In one case a Nigerian woman who cost the taxpayer £145,000 when she had quintuplets on the NHS said she was never billed for the treatment.

Bimbo Ayelabola, 38, had to have a Caesarean at Homerton University Hospital, East London, after travelling to the UK while pregnant in 2011 but now lives in her home city of Lagos.

Under the new rules, if she had a husband in the UK she would not qualify for a visa until she had repaid the debt. It comes after repeated promises by the Government to crack down on health tourism.

Tory MP Ranil Jayawardena said: ‘Taxpayers expect a National Health Service, not an international health service’

Earlier this year, the Home Office reduced the NHS debt threshold for individuals entering the UK on work, student or tourist visas from £1,000 to £500 to clamp down on the problem

Now it is extending the scheme to family visas. Those applying to come to Britain by this route will be blocked at the border if they have an outstanding bill of more than £500. Last year, 38,000 people sought to enter the UK to live with their partner.

Ministers acted after lawyers ruled it would not breach Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, which safeguards family life.

Tory MP Ranil Jayawardena, a member of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said: ‘Taxpayers expect a National Health Service, not an international health service. It is absolutely right that those who contribute to our country get medical support. But those who have not must not be able to enjoy these services without paying.’

A Whitehall source said: ‘We are not going to stand by while the NHS is abused. If overseas visitors want to be treated on the NHS they must pay. If not, we won’t permit them to come here. It’s easy – they either pay up or they stay out.’

The NHS will provide information that will enable the Border Agency to identify debtors and refuse their applications to return to or remain in the UK.

The shake-up of immigration rules, which will be unveiled in a written ministerial statement, will also include plans to bar non-EU migrants from visas unless they speak English to the equivalent of A-level standard.

The move, which is particularly aimed at bringing Muslim women into wider society and improving integration, was announced by former prime minister David Cameron and will come into force in April.