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No decision on return of US, UK diplomatic staff

Although the United States and United Kingdom have withdrawn advisories asking their nationals to leave India, there are no immediate plans to send back their diplomatic staff, which had left due to fears of war.

"There has been a revision of the travel advisory. But it is for the private citizens and not for the return of the diplomatic staff. That decision has to be taken by our government. It has not been taken yet," Gordin Duguid, the spokesman of the US embassy in New Delhi, told rediff.com

He claimed that the departure of the diplomatic staff had not affected the progress of work in visa and other sections.

"The speed of work has not been affected. Especially in our visa section, the appointment system we have helped a lot," Duguid said.

Duguid, however, had no information on the number of Americans travelling to India, as they were not duty bound to inform the embassy of their arrival.

"It is the discretion of the private individuals to travel to India and they are under no obligations to inform the embassy here. But we in touch with the American citizens who are registered with us," he said.

At the British high commission, around 40 of the 100 plus staff had left the country.

"The departure of our staffers affected our work seriously but we still issue around 400 visas per day. We have reassigned some staffers to the visa sections," said spokesman Gerry Mc Crudden.

"We are looking at our staff levels and might be rejuvenating it in the coming weeks," he said.

"We have changed the advisory and it for the British nationals to consider whether they want to travel to India or stay here," he added.

The number of Britons estimated to be in India is around 20,000.

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