Government to Scrap ‘Racist’ Visa System

The Home Office has been forced to scrap a computerised visa system after campaigners claimed it was “racist” for being more likely to refuse people from third world countries entry to Britain.

According to the NGOs, the system — which automatically judges whether it is in the United Kingdom’s interest to grant someone a visa, based on a variety of factors — is “racist” for considering an applicant’s nationality when awarding a green, orange, or red rating.

Following a judicial review, the Home Office — which characterised the algorithm as a “streamlining” system — agreed to drop the technology from August 7th onward, but denied that it was racist.

“We have been reviewing how the visa application streaming tool operates and will be redesigning our processes to make them even more streamlined and secure,” the government ministry said in a statement.

“We do not accept the allegations Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants made in their judicial review claim and whilst litigation is still ongoing it would not be appropriate for the department to comment any further.”

Meanwhile, JCWI’s Chai Patel blasted the Home Office as “oblivious to the racist assumptions and systems it operates”, asserting that the algorithm “took decades of institutionally racist practices, such as targeting particular nationalities for immigration raids, and turned them into software”.