Backlash over conference visa denial

Academics have warned that “a staggering lack of joined-up thinking” is risking the UK’s ability to host conferences after delegates for an African studies event became the latest to have visa applications rejected.

Ahead of the meeting, an organiser for the European Conference on African Studies, taking place at the University of Edinburgh from 11 to 14 June, told Research Fortnight’s sister publication HE that just 30 visa applications from African scholars had been accepted. Over 100 were still pending with less than two weeks to go before the conference and around 20 had been rejected.

By the opening morning of the conference around 200 visas had been granted and 10 rejections overturned on appeal.