India “wants” thousands of extra EU visas under trade deal

• India is reported to be demanding thousands of extra visas for its workers under a multi-billion pound trade deal it is negotiating with the European Union (EU).
• According to media reports, India wants up to 50,000 extra visas a year spread across EU's 27 member-States under the proposed India-EU free trade agreement with Britain said to be under pressure to cough up 20,000 of these.
• The Sunday Telegraph claimed that India was "lobbying" for between 15,000 and 20,000 extra British, 7000 German and 3,000 French visas for its citizens.
• "In return for the visas, the trade deal put forward by the Indian government is expected to be worth at least £4 billion a year to the EU. Britain is expected to win about half that trade, providing a significant boost to exports," the newspaper said.
• If the deal went through, it would be the first time that any country would have access to a fixed number of British visas every year.