They claim their case is simple – if the UK government is fighting to support democracy campaigners in Libya then it should also support those from other countries.

The Home Office says their applications have been dealt with fairly and they must leave.

Source: BBC

See video report

A shortage of junior doctors in some parts of the NHS is forcing health authorities to recruit scores of medics from India.

The recruitment drive comes after recent immigration rules forced thousands of overseas doctors to return home.

But the BBC has learned that an attempt by the Department of Health to recruit hundreds of doctors from India was stopped by the Home Office. Source BBC

See video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/10206603.stm

Michael Buchanan reports.

READ MORE: UK seeks Indian GP shortage help

See also:

Immigration cap ‘would damage hospitality sector’ say REC

UK sees reverse in migration trend from EU

Queen’s speech confirms proposals for immigration cap

Employers issuing Tier 2 certificate work permits in error risk losing UKBA sponsorship and wrecking migrant worker’s lives

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

 Indian students have taken to the streets to voice their concerns over a series of racially motivated attacks in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Police confirm there have been 97 attacks since late-May, although the true figure is probably much higher since many assaults go unreported.

But the problems do not end there. Indian students are now claiming they are being ripped off by a private system keen to take their money, but unable to offer value for money or even a proper education.

The students are demanding of protection from attacks, and safeguards from unscrupulous private education providers are now motivating what has fast become a student movement.

And it has drawn multiracial support not only from Australian students but also from Chinese and other nationalities too.

For the Australian government it is a particularly sensitive issue.

Australia is an educational powerhouse, with 70,000 Indian students alone.

After coal and iron ore, it is the country’s third most lucrative industry, worth around £7.5bn ($14.35bn AUD).

It was the beauty of Sydney that drew Sumit Purdani from Delhi to study for an MBA, but he will remember his time here for the ugliness of the welcome.

Less than a month after arriving Sumit was set upon by a gang of three youths of Middle Eastern descent while he was on his way to a Hindu temple in broad daylight.

He was punched and kicked in an attack that lasted 10-15 minutes. His attackers only ran off when a local football team, who had just finished a match, came into view.

I asked him how he could be sure he was attacked because of his nationality.

There was no doubt, he said, “because of the comments they made, because I was carrying a bag with an Indian logo and because of the comments they made of my country and background”.

More recently, Sumit was attacked for a second time. He says Indian students have come to expect being the victims of racist violence, and he knows a dozen friends who have been targeted.

Back in India – a country determined to assert itself much more forcefully on the international stage, and unwilling to sit back while its citizens experience trouble abroad – the Indian student attacks have received extensive coverage on both cable news channels and special programmes devoted to the issue.

“So what will it take to get Mr Kevin Rudd to finally wake up?” asked one commentator, reproachfully.

Alert to the diplomatic, as well as the economic, fall-out from the controversy, Prime Minister Rudd spoke to Indian reporters, and tried to convey his respect and admiration for a country which Australia has traditionally tended to ignore.

“Our Indian community has been such a vital contributor to our culture, to our life, to our food, to our music,” he said. He even opted for some curry diplomacy:

“Bollywood is a thing with all of our kids, they just love it,” he said. “And I always say this too. Imagine if we never had Indian food in Australia. We would be sentenced to 100 years of English cuisine.”

To some Indian tastes however, this only trivialised the issue.

Since Mr Rudd made those comments, in the midst of the southern winter, the debate has moved on.

The assaults against Indian students have received less attention than concerns over the quality of education being offered.

These concerns were crystallised following the closure of Sterling College in Sydney, a private education college offering vocational qualifications which went into administration in late July.

Sterling College shut its door on 500 mainly overseas students, all of whom had spent thousands of dollars in tuition fees.

The controversy brought to the fore the issue of financial mismanagement in this lucrative sector, and substandard courses.

I spoke to former lecturers at Sterling College who complained about not being given even the most rudimentary teaching tools, like overhead projectors, hand-outs and textbooks.

One lecturer told me she had been teaching a course on ethics at the college, but felt there was something deeply unethical about the courses being offered.

Hardeep Kaur was close to completing her course when Sterling College went into administration. She has not yet told her parents, who have forked out tens of thousands of dollars for her education:

“They are calling every day and asking how the studies are going. I had to just say everything is fine, because I can’t tell them. They will be in shock. I didn’t tell anything to them.”

“We spent thousands of dollars,’ she says. “How would they feel? They will be in shock.”

Her friend, Sashi Ray, is in a similar predicament. “Someone please take care of the international students. We are not here only for the milking, we are not the cash cow. We are here for education.”

Amit Dasgupta, the Indian consul general, requested a posting to Sydney because his daughter is studying in the city.

He wants tighter regulation of this multi-billion dollar industry from the state and federal government, and believes it is now happening.

“It has got the goose that lays the golden egg,” he says of the Australian government. “You don’t want to kill the goose. You have to figure out a way by which you look after the goose. And the only way you can do that is to get the foxes out of the way.”

The state and federal governments are implementing reforms which will strengthen the accreditation process for private colleges, and clamp down on unscrupulous colleges.

With student interest from India already showing signs of trailing off, it has also mounted a diplomatic offensive.

The Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, visited India this month. Mr Rudd plans to make his own visit before Christmas.

At a protest march in Sydney this month, the Australian authorities might have been unnerved by the presence of so many camera crews from China, another lucrative market in the overseas student industry.

Australia is often stereotyped as an unusually racist country, partly because its White Australia immigration policy lasted until the early 1970s.

But perhaps the bigger story of the post-war years is how a mono-cultural society became a successfully multi-cultural society, without much of a backlash.

Geographically and diplomatically, it is well placed to have an enhanced international role in what is likely to be an Asia-dominated century.

But alienating students from the emerging giants of India and China could impede its global ambitions.

Source: BBC

As part of changes under Tier 4 of the points based system, Colleges and educational providers in the UK have recently gone through a rigorous new accreditation and licensing process designed to stamp out bogus and ill-equipped establishments.

Related articles:

7 Steps for overseas students when your college fails 

Make sure your college is on the Tier 4 Sponsors Register before renewing your visa 

If you need any immigration advice or help with Studying in the UK, Settlement, Citizenship, Sponsorship, extending Work Permits, Visa or an appeal against a refusal please email:

info@immigrationmatters.co.uk or visit www.immigrationmatters.co.uk

Keshav Singhal said Wales was more affected by a UK-wide shortage of doctors than other areas. He said:

“The recruitment from the Indian subcontinent which traditionally filled a lot of gaps in the NHS has almost completely dried up.”

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) said the points based immigration system used was flexible.

The British Medical Association in Wales has called for urgent action over the shortage of middle-grade doctors, who often act as the senior doctor on duty in hospitals.

It has said immigration law changes have led to doctors recruited overseas having their entry to the UK delayed.

One west Wales NHS trust has said it has more than 60 vacant doctor posts which could make some of its hospitals “clinically unsafe”.

In Swansea, a crisis in doctor recruitment has led the city’s in-patient paediatrics unit being moved from Singleton Hospital to Morriston Hospital. The move is being made on Thursday.

Mr Singhal, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said immigration policy changes as well as the European directive limiting junior doctors’ working hours were affecting doctor recruitment. He said:

“The two coming together more or less at the same time has meant that we just don’t have enough pairs of hands.

“The doctors who are permitted to come over [from overseas] are only permitted to do so for very short stretches, which is neither enough to complete their training, nor enough to give them a career in this country.

“The government needs to look at it very seriously and perhaps devise a Welsh-specific solution because it’s more of a problem in Wales than it is in home counties.”

Points-based system

He said Wales historically had a recruitment shortfall because locally-trained doctors had a “tendency to gravitate towards London”.

“That [shortfall] has traditionally been filled by overseas doctors and that has dried up,” he said.

A UK Border Agency spokesperson said:

“Our Australian-style points based system does not prevent overseas doctors the health service needs from coming to the UK.

“Foreign doctors can come here to work through Tier 1, which is for highly skilled migrants, or Tier 2, which is for skilled migrants. Students coming to the UK to study medicine can come in under Tier 4.

“The points based system means only those we need can come here to work. It is also flexible so that we can raise or lower the bar according to the needs of the labour market and the country as a whole.

“Overseas doctors who meet the criteria will be welcomed.

“The Migration Advisory Committee has also recognised shortages in a number of specialities and their advice has been accepted by the government.”
Source BBC

Immigration Matters Comment

The UKBA is technically correct, although it is not that easy for foreign Doctors to understand and jump through the hoops of Tier’s 1,2 and 4.

 Even under the previous Work Permit scheme, increasing overseas recruitment for any sector would be simply be a matter of the Home Office or UKBA adding the job to the Shortage Occupations list.

The UKBA recently revised the list following recommendations by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which advises the Government on labour shortages throughout the UK, but did not include junior or middle ranking doctors.

The list had been earlier revised because British junior doctors were not able to find work.

The problem appears to be regional rather than national. Wales and Scotland has always struggled to recruit both Nurses and Doctors, as migrant workers tend to gravitate towards larger Cities and the South East of England.

Scottish MP’s have long called for its own immigration policy, but this has been ruled out due to fears that the system could be abused.  

Scotland (and parts of the North of England and Wales) has a falling population, but has yet to come up with any other way of increasing the number of people willing to settle there other than through immigration.

I am in the Philippines this week an will be speaking at the MOVE EXPO at the SMX Convention Centre in Manila on 31 July and 1 August. 

The migration show and conference is expection up to 10,0000 visitors and will have exhibitors of work and study schemes, as well as colleges such as NVQ provider Majestic College.

If you need any immigration advice or help with Settlement, Citizenship, Sponsorship, extending Work Permits, Visa or an appeal against a refusal please email:

info@immigrationmatters.co.uk or visit http://www.immigrationmatters.co.uk/

Related articles

Would you live in Scotland to earn a British Passport?

New Government-approved shortage occupation lists for Tier 2 of the Points Based System

How to switch immigration categories into the skilled worker category (Tier 2 General)

Points Based Tier 4 starts 31 March  

UK migrants face tougher challenge to work, study or settle

Immigration has kept the capital growing despite Brits, many born and bred in the bustling capital, moving out of the city and into the suburbs in their droves.

Figures released earlier this year show London grew by 1.8 million in the 10 years to 2007, taking into account migrants coming from abroad against those leaving the country.

But the metropolis lost the largest number of people through internal migration of any area in the UK.

A mass exodus saw two million (26% of the city’s 2007 population) leave the capital for other parts of Britain – with only 1.6 million moved to London from the regions. A net loss of 344,558 people.

However, London had by far the biggest level of net international migration of any city – almost 1.8 million more people moving there from abroad than leaving the capital to live outside the UK.

Over the decade, deaths in London and internal migration to other areas of the UK meant population actually rose by only 370,000. The South-East was the most popular region for people to move to from elsewhere in the UK, leading to a net increase of 550,889.

For more information on England’s capital and one of the great cities on the planet see London Line - http://www.londononline.co.uk/factfile/population/ and Visit London – http://www.visitlondon.com/  

London and the South East of England will continue to attract more migrants because it remains the most prosperous part of the UK and one of the wealthiest regions in the world.

Migrants and students have a better chance of finding work around London, which is teaming with hotels, shops, bars and restaurants, and more tourist attractions than almost anywhere on earth.

This week I asked a number of students at Majestic College taking NVQ courses, such as Health and Social Care and Customer Service, how long it took them to find a job – which they need to cover the practical ‘on the job’ learning as part of their course. Almost all the student visa holders, living in the South East, had found jobs within a month of landing in the UK.

One young Filipina Customer Service student said she had applied for ten jobs before securing a part time position at St Mary’s hospital in Paddington as a Food Service Hostess. I asked how she landed this job and she said:

“I just walked in with my CV and asked if they had any vacancies.”

London is also a magnet for an estimated half a million overstayers and illegal immigrants, which is why Mayor Boris Johnson favours an amnesty for illegal immigrants against his own party line. See London Mayor Boris Johnson favours amnesty for illegal immigrants

The UK has a population of over 60 million, with 7.5 million people living in London alone. London receives around 30 million tourists a year, with over 90 million passing through UK ports. Heathrow is the world’s busiest international airport. 

The Borders Citizenship and Immigration Bill, expected to become law later this year, will make it harder to settle in the UK, affecting Work Permit holders, for instance, Senior Carers and Nurses, and other hoping to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) or British Citizenship. 

If you need any immigration advice or help with Studying in the UK, Settlement, Citizenship, Sponsorship, extending Work Permits, Visa or an appeal against a refusal please email:

info@immigrationmatters.co.uk or visit www.immigrationmatters.co.uk

See also: Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill will make it harder to settle in the UK

The South London man had serious underlying health problems and was in Lewisham Hospital. Tests undertaken after his death showed he had the flu.

He is the fourth person with swine flu to die in the UK. Dr Simon Tanner, from NHS London, said London has seen a “spike” in flu cases in the past week.

London is the second-worst affected area, with more than 1,900 cases.

To put this into perspective, the UK has a population of over 60 million, with 7.5 million people living in London alone. London receives around 30 million tourists a year, with over 90 million passing through UK ports. Heathrow is the world’s busiest international airport.

For more information on the capital see London Line - http://www.londononline.co.uk/factfile/population/ or Visit London – http://www.visitlondon.com/

For more advice on Swine Flu visit the useful NHS Direct website – http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/

Most migrants coming to the UK from tropical countries, like the Philippines and India, expect the weather to be freezing cold all year round, packing their huge suitcases with coats, jumpers and even blankets.

To be fair, for the most part they are right to anticipate chilly winds and rain. Just a few weeks ago in the middle of June students arriving at London’s Majestic College were remarking how cold it felt when natives were sweltering, said Centre Manager Cynthia Barker.

Britain copes well with winter weather, but is not equipped for scorching summers.

Air conditioning is not available in every building and and is still a rarity in most peoples homes. The massive London underground network is almost unbearable on a day like today.

But the bottom line is you cannot survive without central heating for nine months of the year, whereas you can suffer a few weeks of British summer.

My advice to migrant workers or students arriving from anywhere south of Spain is to expect to feel the cold here from September to April. Although hardy Brits will happily wear a tee-shirt in November, you will probably need thermal underwear and a woolly sweater when you are still in the house!

For full weather reports check the BBC website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/ 

If you need any immigration advice or help with Studying in the UK, Settlement, Citizenship, Sponsorship, extending Work Permits, Visa or an appeal against a refusal please email:

info@immigrationmatters.co.uk or visit www.immigrationmatters.co.uk

As Labour’s share of the overall vote slumped to an all time low, leaving them in third place behind UKIP (Untied Kingdom Independence Party), smaller parties like the Greens, UKIP and BNP were the beneficiaries. 

BNP leader, Nick Griffin was elected for the North West region while Andrew Brons picked up another BNP seat in Yorkshire and Humber, where it won 10% of the vote. 

Mr Griffin told the BBC that the BNP was not racist and had no problem with immigrants here legally and “contributing”, but gained votes from other parties because it “spoke openly about the problem of immigration.” 

Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman described the BNP result as “terrible”. 

Mr Griffin was elected to the European Parliament even though the BNP polled fewer votes in the region than it had in 2004 – but the slump in Labour support meant its share of the vote increased. 

Under the ‘proportional representation’ system used in the European elections, this meant that although the BNP came fifth in the vote in the region the party won a seat. 

Mr Griffin told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: 

“There’s a huge amount of racism in this country, overwhelmingly it is directed towards the indigenous British majority, which is one reason we’ve done so well in these elections.” 

He said “the indigenous majority [were] the second-class citizens in every possible sphere, not as a consequence of the immigrants themselves, but because our ruling elite has made them second-class citizens.” 

“The Labour Party, the Lib Dems and the Tories, by leaving the door to Britain open, has forced people to turn to a party which speaks openly about the problem of immigration and says that while there might be a few good things about it there’s also a lot of bad things.” 

The BNP won more than 120,139 votes in the Yorkshire region, slightly less than in 2004, but enough to take one of the six seats on offer in the region. 

The BNP targeted the North West during the campaign, having had earlier success in local council elections where the party won one of its three English county council seats in Burnley in Thursday’s elections.

The Conservatives were the main winners on the night taking a 27% share of the vote an 25 MEP seats (up 1). 

UKIP gained one seat and 16.5% of the vote beating Labour into third place with only 15.7% of the national vote. 

Despite the expenses scandal and expected backlash against the main parties, independent candidates and smaller parties did not gain any seats and in the main had disappointing results. 

Of the migrant candidates fighting seats in London, only Sri Lankan Tamil candidate, Jan Jananayagam, came close to gaining a seat, with just over 50,000 votes – more than the heavily backed Jury team and almost as many as the Christian Party-Christian Peoples Alliance. 

Gene Alcantara, the Filipino British Independent got just under 2000 votes, but was disappointed that more people from his own 250,000 strong Filipino community did not turn out to support him. 

Other independent candidates targeting migrant communities, such as Haroon Saad and Sohale Rahman, also suffered from voter apathy.

For full results see the BBC website.

Immigration Matters Comment

Whilst the BNP have no realistic chance of gaining power in the UK, the results do indicate that the British people are concerned about immigration, as well as the growth of European legislation and the Lisbon Treaty.

UKIP, standing on similar anti Europe and immigration policies pulled in 2.5 million votes.

Gordon Brown looks all but finished after these disastrous results. Tonight, the battered Prime Minister addressed his party in Parliament and early signs are that he has managed to hang on and rally MP’s support.

Labour have traditionally favoured a positive immigration policy and have recently introduced a points based system for migration.

David Cameron’s Conservative Party look certain to win the next general election, which could see a cap imposed on immigration and a general hardening of immigration policy.

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

Rakhi Shahi, 31, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, handling criminal property and immigration offences at Isleworth Crown Court. 

Jatinder Kumar Sharma, 44, her husband, admitted his part in the scam in March.

Neelam Sharma, 38, also thought to be Sharma’s wife, was found guilty of handling some of the cash in the scam. But she was cleared of conspiracy to defraud and immigration offences. 

Both women had denied the charges. All three lived in Clarence Street in Southall, from where they ran their consultancy Univisas. 

Shahi, an illegal immigrant, was jailed for eight years while Neelam Sharma was jailed for four years for money laundering. 

Jatinder Kumar Sharma was jailed for seven years. 

He admitted seeking or obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception, possession of identity document with intent, conspiracy to defraud, possessing criminal property and two counts of theft. 

The court heard he has been married to Neelam Sharma for about 20 years and recently also married Shahi. Both marriages took place in India. 

Sentencing Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson said the criticisms of the government agencies were “plainly well founded”. 

“The checks were woefully inadequate and frequently non-existent. 

“You (the defendants) saw the weaknesses in those systems and dishonestly exploited them.” 

The group created thousands of bogus documents including college degree certificates, tax and wage forms, references and academic records, to secure UK visas including student visas. 

The scam exploited the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, the International Graduate Scheme and other leave-to-remain visa applications. 

Police suspect the company secured visas for at least 1,000 people, mostly from the Indian sub-continent, using a network of bogus colleges in London, Manchester, Bradford and Essex. 

Eight Pakistani terror suspects who were arrested earlier this year during raids in Manchester and Liverpool are also thought to have used a similar scam to gain UK visas. 

The UK Border Agency, the Home Office and the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) were criticised for a “shambolic” system which the fraudsters exploited.

Prosecutor Francis Sheridan told the court the evidence against the trio presented a “damning indictment” of failures of the UK’s border controls. 

The court heard Home office employees failed to spot discrepancies in employment certificates and wage slips and that some students appeared to have attended two full-time courses simultaneously. 

Several applicants gave the same address and in one case one person’s sex changed in the middle of the immigration process.

Last February the Metropolitan Police and the UK Border Agency raided Univisas’ office and found 90,000 documents, including false university certificates and pay slips. 

Officers also found passports, 150 ink stamps and £22,500 in cash and seized 980 individual files. 

The court heard the fraudsters charged hundreds and thousands of pounds as fees and were confident enough to offer a money-back guarantee to clients. 

The scam garnered more than £1.5m in two years, of which police have so far been able to seize £420,000. 

Jatinder Sharma was caught when he offered to get an undercover newspaper reporter a post-graduate diploma in business administration and other papers for about £4,000. 

Following the verdict Tony Smith, the regional director of the UK Border Agency, said: 

“This was one of the largest joint investigations ever undertaken by the UK Border Agency and police. 

“We believe we have cracked a major international conspiracy to facilitate the entry of illegal immigrants into the UK. 

“Those behind it showed total disregard for the law, and their motives were purely financial.”

Immigration Matters Comment 

Unfortunately, fraudulent immigration consultants give the rest of the profession, the vast majority of whom are honest law abiding advisers doing a good job for their vulnerable clients, a bad name. 

However, the public should have confidence that registered immigration advisers can be trusted and are regulated. 

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

Phil Woolas has threatened legal action over “disgusting” allegations he claimed for women’s clothing, nappies and comics. 

The Minister claims nappies and women’s clothing were listed on a receipt for food which he submitted, but he did not receive any money for them. 

Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton, is alleged to have claimed more than £20,000 for a house in Southampton 100 miles from her constituency. 

But she told the BBC the report was “inaccurate” and “probably actionable”. 

The beleaguered Border and Immigration Minister has been under fire recently over the Gurkhas debacle after the Government lost a vote in Parliament forcing a rethink on its policy.

Last Thursday Mr Woolas was ambushed by Gurkhas campaigner Joanna Lumley.

Woolas was railroaded by the former Avengers actress into making a public statement, committing the Government to take action, in front of millions of BBC viewers. 

A number of other Ministers and MP’s have been named in the media over extravagant expenses claims including the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and former Immigration Minister Tony McNulty. 

Speculation is rife that Jacqui Smith will be demoted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a Summer cabinet reshuffle after the local and European elections in June. 

The Home Secretary or Secretary of State for the Home Department, is in charge of the Home Office, which covers: crime, security, counter-terrorism, civil emergencies and immigration. 

The position, one of the highest in the land, been vacated in controversial circumstances by a number of Jacqui Smith’s predecessors. 

David Blunkett quit the post in December 2004, after it emerged that he had fast-tracked a passport application for his ex-lover’s Filipina nanny.

His successor Charles Clarke was forced to resign two years later following the “escaped foreign prisoners scandal. 

Political heavyweight and tough talking John Reid took control of the Home Office famously remarking that it was not “fit for purpose”.

He quickly brought in reforms leading to the formation of the UK Border Agency, but resigned in 2007 to return to the back benches and was replaced by Jacqui Smith.

Jacqui Smith is currently the subject of an investigation into her ’second home’ expenses and her husband’s (who is also her paid assistant) claim for renting a porn movie.