Security, Investigation, Corporate Events and Executive Protection Specialists
+44 20 3178 6427
A2Z Security Group News
Government slammed for failure over bogus colleges and economic migrants
- 22 July 2009
- The Government is urged to change the law so that the term “college” can be used only by genuine education establishments with official accreditation.
Members of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee criticise the Home Office for ignoring repeated warnings about sham colleges selling places on bogus courses to economic migrants posing as students.
They also attack the UK Border Agency’s policy of giving private colleges advance notice of inspection visits.
The report follows a committee inquiry, started after an investigation by The Times revealed that tens of thousands of foreign nationals with no right to work in Britain had been living here for years under the false cover provided by hundreds of bogus colleges operating in London, Bradford and Manchester.
A dossier of evidence compiled by The Times was handed to the Home Office and has already led to one arrest and the closure of a college in Manchester. Other individuals and colleges are now under investigation.
Today’s report is highly critical of a series of government failings that, it says, have allowed tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to enter and remain in the country.
Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, called for immediate action to stem the flow of bogus students and said that the committee was not convinced that effective efforts were being made to remove fake students from the country.
Mr Vaz said: “Bogus colleges may have allowed tens of thousands of foreign nationals to enter the country illegally. The Government has been aware of their existence for ten years and done nothing to stop them. This is totally unacceptable and frankly, quite unbelievable.”
He added: “Action must be taken immediately. Firm enforcement action must be taken against any individual whose student visa has expired to ensure that they leave the country, as well as against those who have set up bogus colleges to perpetrate visa fraud. We are not convinced that this is happening at the moment.” The committee said it suspected that a significant number of the 2,200 colleges listed, until March this year, on a register run by the former Department for Innovations, Universities and Skills were “bogus”.
Its report also casts doubt on whether widespread abuse of the student-visa system will be ended by new arrangements for international colleges that were introduced in April. Under the new system, colleges seeking to admit non-EEA nationals must first win accreditation from a government-approved body. They also face inspection by the UK Border Agency.
The committee added that it was “deeply concerned” that, in the past, advance notice of inspections had been given to college owners in up to 85 per cent of cases and called for a move towards rigorous, unannounced inspections.
Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, defended last night the “tough new student arrangements” introduced this year and said that they “ensured that only genuine foreign students can travel to the UK”.