Bogus colleges in spotlight as ‘Pakistani suspects’ let into UK
The Times have been running an investigation this week into fraudsters who set up a network of fake colleges which helped thousands of Pakistani nationals enter Britain on student visas.
The students at 11 bogus colleges included eight of the 10 suspects arrested last month in a terror probe in northwest England, the newspaper said.
One college sold hundreds of places to men from Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, where fighting is raging between Taliban militants and the Pakistani army.
The three Pakistani businessmen operating the scam charged at least 1,000 pounds for admission places after creating a fictional university to issue degrees, the Times said.
One of the businessmen has been linked to two murders in Pakistan, it said, adding that the man was arrested on Wednesday, after the Times gave the Home Office a dossier implicating two of the colleges.
The Times said the scam exploited lax controls on student visas in Britain which are being tightened in the wake of the Pakistanis’ terror probe arrests last month.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the arrests were linked to a “major terrorist plot.” But none of the men were eventually charged with a criminal offence, but they face deportation.
The newspaper said eight of the suspects enrolled for 11 months at the Manchester College of Professional Studies, which issued hundreds of diplomas and degrees and stated that students had impeccable attendance records.
In reality, the college, set up in 2006, was a “front that provided cover for students to do whatever they wanted in Britain,” the Times said.
Its founders claimed it was linked to “Greenford University” and “Blackpool University” in Dublin. Neither university exists.
Nevertheless the ‘universities’ accredited the Manchester college with an array of undergraduate and postgraduate courses which the small three-classroom college was incapable of teaching, the Times said.
At one point, the Manchester college had 1,797 students on its books.
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas told the Times that the information it had provided “has been passed on to the UK Border Agency, which is investigating.”
Immigration Matters Comment
None of the Pakistani terror suspects have yet been charged with any offence, but face deportation.
International students are worth £8 billion to the UK economy and many universities would not survive without them. The vast majority of international colleges and educational providers are running legitimate courses and deplore these scams.
Under Tier 4 of the Points Based System, colleges and universities recruiting overseas students must go through a rigorous licensing process in order to be granted a sponsors licence by the UK Border Agency.
As part of the new requirements, educational providers are now inspected by accreditation bodies such as ASIC, BAC and the British Council, who go through everything with a fine tooth comb, before the UK Border carries out its own checks.
One NVQ provider, Majestic College, recently received its Sponsors Licence from the UK Border Agency after months of work and several inspection visits.
According to Centre Manager Cynthia Barker the process took nine months and cost thousands of pounds, which perhaps explains why only 1540 (out of 15,000) international colleges have so far appeared on the sponsors register.
If you need any immigration advice or help with Sponsorship or Work Permits, Visa or an appeal against a refusal please email:
info@immigrationmatters.co.uk or visit www.immigrationmatters.co.uk
Reader Comments
Correcting the facts about Pakistani Students.
This is with reference to news stories by Andrew Norfolk regarding sham colleges and there connection with terror suspects, published in The Times on the 21st May , All the stories refer to those Pakistani students as terror suspects who were detained from the North West of England on 8th April this year . Referring to these students as suspects of terrorism is unfair in the wake of the fact that no charges were established against them and they were handed over to UK boarder agencies after the charges were dropped against them , This is also evident from your leading article of the same day, stating “ though all those students were released without charge….”. .Now once they have been released without charge it is not fair to write about them as suspects of terrorism, particularly at a stage when the cases of these students are sub judice. . Applying connotations on them would be contrary to customs and practices in such situations.
The other major point to be raised about these reports is that in fact these were Pakistani students who were cheated and allured to spent money for joining fake institutions and they may claim damages for being mislead as none of the Pakistani students applying from there could doubt the credibility of institutions enrolled on government list in the category of institutions capable to sponsor foreign students. In Britain educational institutions are monitored by various authorities , the mushroom growth of sham institutions reflects lapse on the part of those authorities not the Pakistani students.
Moreover as a result of recent steps taken by the British Government only about 1500 out of 15000 i.e one tenth of colleges have been able to survive new stringent controls. of eligibility to sponsor foreign students. Whereas only two colleges where Pakistani students were enrolled are being projected on an out of proportion magnitude . What about other colleges? who were the students enrolled there ?and who is to be taken responsible for this scam.?.
It appears that by publishing such reports media trail has been launched against Pakistan once again.
I ma really surprised that very illegal immigrant is brought through network of people based in UK under the supervision of intellegent network of UK government.They come to UK, seek asylum and become millionare in few years.Just check the asian channels which receive calls from people of dubious charaters.They are mushrooming like mandir,masjid.