UK to screen Bangladeshis for TB
UNB, Dhaka
The British Home Office has included Bangladesh, a high risk tuberculosis (TB) country according to the World Health Organisation, as one of the four countries to begin its initial phase of the planned Tuberculosis (TB) Screening Scheme at the entry clearance stage.The Home Office was due to make a statement in parliament yesterday about the UK's five-year strategy on immigration and asylum, said a British High Commission news release in Dhaka yesterday. It said the British Home Office has decided to implement this new scheme in a number of phases, later in the summer. The new scheme will affect those who are applying to come to the UK for more than six months (visitors and short-term students will not be affected). Applicants will be expected to go to a clinic that the UK has accredited (via International Organisation of Migrarion) for the necessary tests. Assuming the applicants are found to be free from infectious TB, they will be issued with a certificate and able to continue with their application. If they are found to be suffering from TB, they will be asked to go and seek treatment and will not (normally) be allowed to apply for a visa, until free from the illness. TB is a growing problem in the UK and the new scheme is aimed at tackling this problem, the news release added.
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