A senior clergyman today condemned a decision to refuse permission to enter the UK to nine visitors from the Church of Uganda.
The British High Commission in Uganda has refused to grant visas to the group, which includes a priest, a trainee priest, a head teacher and an aid worker.
The visitors, from the Diocese of Mukono, were to visit churches in the Chippenham area of Wiltshire this week.
Area Dean of Chippenham the Rev Simon Tatton-Brown said he could not understand why they had not been granted entry.
“The reasons given by the High Commission baffle belief,” he said.
“The High Commission has cast doubts on the group’s ability to pay their way, and states that ‘on the balance of probabilities’ the visitors won’t leave the UK at the end of their stay.”
The goodwill visit, one of a series going back over 25 years, was organised by the Diocese of Bristol.
The Chippenham churches sent a similar delegation to Mukono in February 2003.
Mr Tatton-Brown said: “The local churches have raised more than £8,000 to pay all the visitors’ air fares and expenses while in England.
“We have faxed bank statements and a letter from our bank to the High Commission, showing a balance of well over £7,000 at the end of April.
“As for them being ‘economic migrants’, the group includes a priest, a trainee priest, a head teacher and teacher, an aid worker, and students. All are responsible people, spoken for by the Bishop of Mukono.”
A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said she was unable to comment on individual cases but added that the refusal was based on the understood intentions of the visa applicants.
She said the group was welcome to reapply for visas if they could show fresh evidence of their financial support and intention to return to Uganda after the trip.