Almost 50000 bogus foreign students faked English language tests to stay in ... - Daily Mail

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/24/2014 - 20:57

By
Ian Drury
and James Slack

The staggering scale of abuse of the student visa system by immigrants desperate to stay in Britain was revealed yesterday.

Tens of thousands of bogus students faked English language tests to beat UK border controls, the Government admitted.

An
estimated 48,000 immigrants had exploited the lax system in a
‘shocking’ scam run by criminal gangs, said Immigration Minister James
Brokenshire.

He
revealed there had been ‘systematic cheating’ that allowed foreigners
who could barely speak a word of English to stay in the country
illegally, with corrupt invigilators reading out answers or allowing
gangs of imposters to sit tests so the candidates could be awarded an
English language certificate.

The National Crime Agency has been called in to assist the investigation and some arrests have already been made.

It is the latest immigration scandal to rock the Home Office.


Last month the Mail revealed migrants who cannot speak English were
able to buy a certificate saying they had passed a language test.

The document opens the door to British citizenship, allowing them access to a full range of benefits.

Our investigation exposed Learn Pass Succeed, which ran the scam at exam centres licensed by the Home Office.

During our undercover probe,
the Mail paid £500 for a pass certificate in the English language exam
for a fake candidate despite him never sitting the test or taking a
course.

Speaking in the
Commons yesterday, Mr Brokenshire said immigration officials were
working with HM Revenue & Customs to identify foreign students who
are in Britain unlawfully as a result of taking the fake language tests,
so they can be booted out.

In
one extraordinary case, an overseas university student earned more than
£20,000 a year despite rules preventing them from working more than 20
hours a week during term time.

Ministers
also said there were ‘serious concerns’ surrounding the colleges and
universities which had allowed the overseas students to enrol on
courses.

The Home Office was alerted to the student visa scandal only after it was exposed by a BBC Panorama programme in February.

ETS, the major company that sets the exams but does not appoint the invigilators, is now at the centre of a police probe.

In
a humiliating Commons appearance, Mr Brokenshire said an investigation
had found more than 29,000 falsified test certificates and another
19,000 questionable results. But he was forced to admit: ‘It is likely
that the true totals will be higher.’

He
added: ‘Evidently this could only happen with considerable collusion by
the test centres concerned. The Government is not prepared to tolerate
this abuse.

‘We will not
hesitate to take firm action against those students, colleges and
universities  who do not abide by their legal responsibilities, and
bring those responsible to justice.’

Each
year, around 100,000 non-EU students get their visas to stay in the UK
extended. Since 2011 foreign students have had to prove they can speak
English.

Glyndwr University
in north-east Wales, has been stripped of its right to admit foreign
students after up to 350 were identified as having invalid or dubious
test results.

In addition,
57 private further education colleges also had licenses for admitting
foreign students suspended. The University of Bedfordshire and
University of West London are no longer allowed to recruit overseas
students pending inquiries.

Mr
Brokenshire said the ‘worst abuse’ took place at the campuses of London
universities which were located in other parts of the country. He has
ordered a separate inquiry by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher
Education, a university watchdog.

In
2012, academics expressed concerns that universities were recruiting
foreign students whose grasp of English is so poor they would ‘struggle
to scrape a GCSE’. Foreign students were seen as ‘cash cows’ as they
could be charged up to £20,000 in fees.

Shadow
immigration minister David Hanson said the scale of the scandal was
‘truly shocking’. He added: ‘People will be outraged that genuine
students who can add to our economy are being turned away while bogus
students prosper under this Government. It is clearly an abuse that
damages the integrity of the system.’

The
Tories said Labour had done nothing to tighten up immigration controls
during its time in power and it had ‘fallen on this Government to
introduce further stringent measures’.

Ministers have no idea how many sham marriages are conducted in Britain, the Government's borders chief told MPs today.

Sir John Vine, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said there were likely to be many more fake weddings than the 10,000 estimated by the Home Office.

He told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee that the problem was 'much more widespread' than ministers admitted.

Sir John said Nigerians, Ghanaians and Pakistanis were most likely to be caught trying to cheat their way past border controls by conducting a fake wedding.

But he added: 'One of the fundamental problems is that the Home Office doesn't really know.

'There's a combination of a lack of intelligence and also of poor management information in order for the Home Office to get a grip on it.'

He was asked whether he thought there were many more sham marriages than officially recorded.

Sir John said: 'I think so.' He added: 'It is a much more widespread issue than the figures suggest.'

He said some couples turned up for their ceremony in casual clothes and stood texting on their mobile phones throughout the service.