London: British authorities are faced with applications from about 2,500 Indian nationals, mostly hailing from Punjab, seeking political asylum in this country, raising concerns over various dimensions of the growing problem and forcing the Government to clamp tighter visa regimes and stringent measures, which include a two-year prison term for those who destroy their travel documents.

"Their applications seeking asylum are pending," a senior British official in London told a group of visiting Indian journalists.

The modus operandi in several cases followed a similar pattern. Such persons have a transit halt at Heathrow Airport, where they destroy their passports, claim they are persecuted back in India and seek asylum in UK.

Luring prospective aspirants with lucrative offers, unscrupulous travel agents from India have also used this route to make money.

In August 2003, five of a team of visiting women cricketers went missing, apparently in search of greener pastures. Three have since returned, but the whereabouts of the remaining two are still not known.

Indians continue to be among the largest asylum seekers in the UK. There are sizeable numbers in this category from Somalia, Zimbabwe, China, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Congo.

"It is a major problem," noted industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul said, adding this was one of the primary reasons for the introduction of the transit visa by the British Government.

Put into force on October 15, 2003, it stipulated that nationals of India, Angola, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Lebanon and Pakistan would need visas to travel through the UK.

Previously, people from these countries required visas to visit the UK, but were able to travel without one if they passed through on their way to a third country.

"The tightening of the rules is in response to attempts by some of these nationals to circumvent the UK's immigration system," said the Britain Home Office.

"We are responding to intelligence that some nationals of these countries are using transit visas to flout our immigration controls and either enter the UK illegally or make unfounded asylum applications," it said.

PTI