New Delhi: Britain's visa authority has identified 140 Indian companies which provided bogus employment references for visa applicants till 2006-07, a study revealed today.

The study, jointly undertaken by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and IntegraScreen, was released here by Chris Dix, Director Visas, British High Commission. The report, without providing details, said that these groups were involved in providing the bogus employment references. Britain received almost 2.75 million visa applications in 2006-07 of which 81 per cent were accepted, Dix said, adding in 2006, more than 4,000 forged or counterfeit documents were detected at UK ports.

He said Britain saw its inflow of migrants climb from 228,000 in 1995 to 379,300 in 2000 and then to 494,100 in 2004. John Baxter, Managing Director of IntegraScreen, said that setting up organisations that can validate an individual's personal documentation could be an important step to check such frauds. To grant qualified access to overseas immigration departments can also simplify the visa procedures, he said.

The study revealed that international efforts to monitor migration have been inadequate. The movement of people across borders, unlike that of goods or trade, remains largely unregulated at an international level, it said.

Source : PTI