UK accused of unlawful crackdown on visitors from Timor-Leste

Helder Assoncao, a permanent UK resident, was joined by his daughter Gracia Calvario Costa in the UK early last year, but his second daughter, Marize, has been refused UK entry. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian

The Home Office has been accused of implementing discriminatory policies towards visitors from Timor-Leste, many of whom have the right to travel to the UK but who have been blocked from entering the country in large numbers.

Regulations were changed last week to require East Timorese visitors to apply for visas before travelling to the UK, after decades of visa-free travel. The Foreign Office said this was in response to a “sustained and significant” rise in the number of people travelling from the tiny south-east Asian island with the intention of working here illegally.