India has questioned Britain’s assessment of the number of Indians overstaying their visa in the UK and called for policies based on statistics, amid an ongoing controversy over Britain’s failure to include Indian students in the relaxation of visa norms, and whether it was linked to India’s failure to sign an MoU on the return of illegal immigrants.

“I am sure there are many (overstayers) but where did this figure of 100,000 come from?,” asked Indian High Commissioner YK Sinha speaking at a UK-India event in Buckinghamshire on Wednesday, referring to a figure that has regularly been cited as the British government’s estimates for the number of Indians overstaying their visa in the UK. He pointed to Home Office figures from 2016 to 2017 that showed over 300,000 visas were issued to Indians. “97% of them went back…so I think this is important. We need to see this whole debate in the proper context.”

Earlier this week Britain’s Trade Minister Liam Fox linked the decision not to include Indian students in the visa relaxation announced last Friday to cooperation between the two countries on the return of illegal migrants, including the failure of India to sign an MoU with the UK on the issue during PM Modi’s visit earlier this year.

New Delhi’s demands for “easier norms” as part of a “constant conversation” between the two countries could not be dealt with without India addressing the issue of “over-stayers,” Fox said on Monday.

“Allegations that India and visitors has misused the system is an enormous roadblock in the way of having some kind of special trade relationship,” said Vincent Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who described the decision to exclude students from the visa changes as a “retrograde step.”

Earlier this month, it emerged that Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had intervened at the last minute to prevent the signing of an MoU on returning illegal migrants because of concerns over the British demand that Indian authorities would have 15 days to verify the antecedents of an undocumented migrant.

“Indian students have not been included in the liberalised tier 4 visas. Now we could say that’s linked to the MoU not being signed on illegal returns but I want to tell everyone that our cooperation with the UK on this subject is very robust,” Sinha said referring to the large number of people who were sent back last year. “Obviously once they are established to be Indians they will be taken back. We have made that abundantly clear.”

The British High Commission in India has sought to separate the issues insisting that the update to Appendix H — the list of countries from which students would be required to provide less documentation - followed a “routine review” of the list due to the fact countries’ risk profiles change over time.

“Analysis of objective data has shown that India remains below the level required to consider a change at the current time,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

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