Student Visa System Could Have Been Exploited By Up To 50,000

The National Audit Office (NAO) has claimed, in a highly critical report, that up to 50,000 people may have entered Britain to work rather than study in the first year of the government's student migration controls.

The UK Border Agency introduced a points-based system, known as Tier 4, in 2009 without key controls, which the NAO said could potentially have lead to tens of thousands of migrants entering the UK without any checks as to whether they were attending a college, and it did little to ensure that foreign students left the UK when requests to extend their stay were refused.

MPs called for the troubled UK Border Agency to "get a grip and fix the way it deals with student visas" after saying the report exposed one of the most shocking examples of poor management leading to abuse.

“The agency implemented Tier 4 before the key controls were in place," the report said. "The Agency withdrew entry clearance officers' powers to test applicants' intentions before it had controls fully in place over sponsors and the documentation required to support an application.

"We estimate between 40,000 and 50,000 individuals might have entered through Tier 4 in its first year of operation to work rather than study.

"Between March 2009 and February 2010, the [Border] Agency detected thousands of forged college visa letters at some application centres. The agency did not check that those who entered through suspect routes were attending college."

The ability of the Border Agency to track down people who have evaded check was also questioned: "The agency is not as efficient and effective in tracing people as it could be."

A contractor hired by a watchdog found addresses for almost a fifth of more than 800 migrants wanted by the agency, in just one week at a cost of £3,000.

Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the Commons’ public accounts committee, said of the damning report: "It should be a real wake-up call to the agency that the NAO were able to track down 147 migrants who are probably here illegally within a week at a cost of only £3,000. The agency needs to get a grip and fix the way it deals with student visas."

(H)