British Prime Minister David Cameron declared, “…we’re now getting to grips with it” in his immigration speech in Hampshire on 14 April. A crackdown on the widespread abuse was promised with a particular focus on bogus students and dodgy colleges.
The Prime Minister talked about abuse of the student route which he cited as the most popular of all non-EU immigration into the UK. “Immigration by students has almost trebled in the past decade. Last year, some 303,000 visas were issued overseas for study in the UK. But this isn’t the end of the story. Because a lot of those students bring people with them to this country: husbands, wives, children…we know that some of these student applications are bogus, and in turn their dependents are bogus. Consider this: a sample of 231 visa applications for the dependents of students found that only twenty-five percent of them were genuine dependents. The whole system [is] out of control and we’re now getting to grips with it. That badly needs to be done”, he said.
UK educational providers that sell places on fake courses in order to secure entry clearance – so called bogus colleges – are firmly in the Government’s sights. Cameron went on to say, “We’re making sure that anyone studying a degree-level course has a proper grasp of the English language. We’re saying that only postgraduate students can bring dependents. And we’re making sure that if people come over here to study, they should be studying rather than working, and that when they’ve finished their studies, they go home unless they are offered a graduate-level skilled job, with a minimum salary.”
The problem of bogus colleges and fraud in the immigration system has grown in recent years. Concerns are echoed by the slow uptake of the UK Border Agency’s Highly Trusted Sponsor licence. In January 2011, only 131 of 744 listed colleges had been awarded Highly Trusted Sponsor status. However, figures released by the British Government show that since January 2011, those non-Highly Trusted Sponsors have sponsored a total of 280,000 students. “The potential for abuse is clearly enormous,” Cameron said.
Cameron cited many examples in his speech of supposed students found to be doing everything but studying: students found working 280 miles from their sponsor, students working in 20 different locations and severe under-staffing in some institutions: 2 lecturers for 940 students, for example.
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