Written question asked by Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 12 December 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 17 December 2007. It was answered by Kim Howells (Labour) on Monday, 7 January 2008 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Chernobyl: Children

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs with reference to the answer of 19 October 2007, Official Report, columns 1375-76W, on Chernobyl: children, at what level in Belarus the UK Government application was made; and how that refusal was conveyed.

Answer: The Deputy Head of Mission, Entry Clearance Officer and Regional Deputy Director of Visa Services at our embassy in Minsk held a meeting in June 2007 with the Deputy Head of the Consular Department and other officials of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The embassy asked whether they could open Visa Application Centres (VACs) operated by their commercial partner in Belarus. The MFA said that if the embassy did open such premises they would be subject to frequent searches and/or closures by the Belarus authorities. The embassy therefore considered that they would not be able to protect the data of visa customers satisfactorily and decided not to open VACs in Belarus.Given the lack of agreement with the Belarus authorities in respect of our commercial partner in Belarus, UKvisas and our embassy in Minsk have now agreed to invest additional resources in a seasonal mobile biometric pilot project in the summer of 2008 for Chernobyl children in need of recuperative holidays. The pilot will involve visits by embassy officials, with a mobile biometric kit, to the region where the largest number of such children live. UKvisas are also prepared to receive applications in Kiev, in Ukraine, where that proves to be more convenient.

Secondary information