UK panel expands inquiry into Indian student deportations

An influential British parliamentary committee has announced a more detailed inquiry into the treatment of international students, majority of them Indian, who were accused of cheating on English language tests and deported from the UK.
The House of Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee, chaired by Indian-origin Labour MP Keith Vaz, had launched the inquiry into the UK Home Office response to the cheating scandal back in April.
In its report released on Friday, the committee concluded that the issue requires a morefuller inquiry into the scandal, which involved hundreds of dawn raids by UK Border Agency officers andresulted in thedeportationof around 48,000 internationalstudents, nearly 70 per cent of whom were Indian, during the course of 2014.

"We are deeply concerned with the arrests,dawn raids andaggressive deportations of students from outside the European Union (EU), which have occurred following allegations of fraud at English language testing centres," Vaz said in a statement today.
He further said: "The Home Office appears not to have investigated English language testing fraud allegationsthemselvesbefore undertaking heavy-handed action. Recent legal cases, with their damming criticisms from senior judges, have opened the door to a mass of expensive and damaging litigation".
"An estimated 70 per cent of those affected are of Indian nationality, and this debacle comes at a time when Indian student numbers in the UK are declining. The UK risks causing extensive damage to its reputation as a leading destination for international study."

The initial inquiry was set up followingthe UK's Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) ruling allowing a test appeal by two of thestudentsaccused of cheating in their mandatory English test conducted by a subsidiary of US-based ETS.

The cheating scam was uncovered by a
'BBCPanorama'investigation in February 2014. It found that immigration consultancies and international education agencies were charging fees to help internationalstudentswith poor English get around tests required forstudentvisas and visa extensions.
An ensuing investigation by the Home Office claimed widespread problems with the test system, leading to revocation of licenses of nearly 100 institutions and triggering the removal of students who had been tested there.

(Reopens FGN 44)
"These issues include procurement and licensing,
investigations, inspections and how much money has been spent. As a starting point to this inquiry the Home Office must, in response to this report, set out the process for out-of-country appeals; the steps which will be taken to ensure a fair hearing; and whether this will include appellants being given access to the evidence against them," the report said.
"We will also be insisting that ETS give evidence to the Committee, something they have failed to do in court," it said.
The committee fears a "knee-jerk reaction" by the UK Home Office following the BBC documentary.

"We have received evidence that people were only told why their visas were being revoked after extensive requests for information, and that those affected did not have the opportunity to review and contest evidence presented against them. It does not seem to us fair that the UK is removing people from the country without, as a minimum, making them aware of the evidence against them," the report said.
The UK Home Office is yet to comment on the latest findings of the report.