Bosnia and Herzegovina UK Network letter regarding Visa-free access for Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens to the United Kingdom

updated on

Bosnia and Herzegovina UK Network letter regarding Visa-free access for Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens to the United KingdomDamian Green,
(MP) Immigration Minister
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr Green

We are an organization called Bosnia and Herzegovina UK Network which is composed of Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens who live in Great Britain. Bosnia and Herzegovina UK  Network consists of 14 branches that are located around the UK this was established in  1996 with our head office based in Birmingham.

The aim is to help Bosnian citizens who came to the UK as refugees after the outbreak of the war in Bosnia in1992 our aim is to assist Bosnian people to adapt to the new environment in the UK; youngsters went on and completed their education at schools, colleges and universities. While working age citizens took up employment to help the economy we can say that this Bosnian population has integrated well into the British culture and most of them have also become British citizens.

The Bosnian population in the UK is not large, about 10,000. They are organised through Bosnia House associations that helped them to accustom to a new way of living regards to being in the UK and help maintain contact with their homeland.

As you may know Bosnia and Herzegovina have achieved visa-free access to the European Union’s through “Schengen Agreement” which is considered one of the great successes for this small country. Since the UK is not a signatory to the Schengen Agreements the UK is not obliged to allow entry of Bosnian citizens to the UK without a
visa for this reason the Bosnia and Herzegovina UK Network would like to ask you to consider the possibility of changing legislations set to visas for Bosnian citizens to make it easier to enter the UK.

Why are we asking for this?

Many of the Bosnia citizens who came to live in the UK are now honourable British citizens fulfilling their duties and obligations in the same way as other citizens for the UK.

We do believe that an opportunity should be given to their families and friends to come and visit them. They will comply with all the legal requirements and regulations that are required.

We sincerely thank you and hope that you will favour our appeal for any changes in legislations set to visa for Bosnian citizens to make it easier to comply.

Yours faithfully,

Meho Jakupovic
Chairman