A TOTAL of 393,253 people from the six GCC countries, including Bahrain, and Jordan applied for Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to travel to the UK in the first five months since the launch of the scheme.

The programme was launched in October last year initially for Qatari nationals only and was later extended to nationals of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan from February 1 this year (effective from February 22).

According to the latest UK immigration statistics, ending June, a majority of the applications for ETA was received from Jordan (146,740), followed by Saudi Arabia (118,451), Kuwait (48,888), Qatar (30,391), the UAE (29,777), Oman (10,334) and Bahrain (8,474) while 198 were registered under ‘other and unknown’.

Under the programme, all Bahraini visitors, even those transiting through any of the UK’s airports, are required to apply for the two-year ETA for £10 (BD4.760).

The ETA is tied to the passport and is valid for two years or until the passport expires, whichever is sooner.

The Home Office data shows that there were 2.1 million visitor visas granted in the year ending June 2024, 16 per cent higher than the year ending June last year but 13 per cent lower than in 2019, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A further breakdown of the data shows that a total of 388,021 ETAs were issued, while 3,561 applications were rejected and 626 refused.

This included the rejection of 38 applications from Bahrainis and eight refusals.

There were almost 3.4 million visas granted in different categories until June this year.

Indian nationals accounted for 25pc of visitor visas granted (530,587), with Chinese nationals accounting for 24pc (507,883).

The next largest visa nationalities were Turkish (7pc), Nigerian (5pc), Pakistani and South African nationals (both 4pc).

“In the year ending June 2024 there were 128.4m arrivals to the UK, 11pc more than the preceding year, and 3pc higher than in the year ending December 2019 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, when only taking air passenger arrivals into account,” said the UK Home Office data.

“Passengers arriving by air accounted for 88pc of all passenger arrivals to the UK (across all routes) in the year ending June 2024, with 7pc arriving via rail and 5pc by sea.”

These were similar to the proportions for the year ending June 2023.

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