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EastStandRed
Barnsley co-chairman Paul Conway hits out at Home Office over 'ludicrous' visa wait
BARNSLEY co-chairman Paul Conway has launched an impassioned criticism of the Home Office following difficulties in obtaining visas for recent signings Obbi Oulare and Aaron Leya Iseka - and has labelled the procedures followed by the Government department as 'ludicrous' and 'unacceptable.'
The Reds, who signed Oulare from Standard Liege on July 26, have finally received clearance for the striker today, but fellow Belgian forward Iseka, brought in from Toulouse on August 2, has not yet obtained his visa.
Defending Barnsley's role in the situation, Conway said: "As a board, we don't speak out that much, but we do when there's issues that aren't right for Barnsley Football Club and English football.
"In the past, it's teams cheating and a lack of rules enforcement. This is our next issue.
"Both of these players get a GBE (permit), so they are guaranteed a visa. But since we are in this post-Brexit bureaucracy, you don't know if you will get this visa in a couple of weeks, couple of weeks or a month.
"This is not acceptable. We send a player to Denmark and he gets a visa the same day...So both these players were approved to play in England and we are caught in the bureaucracy of the Home Office in not having a standard procedure for the issuing of these visas.
"Obbi was told by the Home Office to go to Belgium 18 days ago to get his visa. "Eigh**** days and he just got it today. This is a joke, this is ludicrous. I don't understand this country, this is a big industry and we pay a lot of taxes here. "Why cannot we have a standard process for the timing of issuing of visas.
"The same thing with Aaron. He has been approved to play in England. So his deal was signed a week or so after Obbi so our logical assumption was that we'd get the visa in about a week.
"We have three sets of lawyers working on this and the Belgian Government actually helping out as these are Belgian citizens.
"This is a joke. At the same time, you see Manchester United and Chelsea get in players remarkably quickly and that is probably because they have better relations with the Home Office than Barnsley Football Club. But this shouldn't even be a problem, we should basically have a fixed procedure once you have all the paperwork ready and you get a visa within four or five days.
"It is something we are going to work on as foreign recruiting is a big part of Barnsley Football Club. This has to change, we are going to speak up about it, it is unacceptable and it is going to have to change."
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