Finance
A group of international students, many of whom are Indians, who had their visas revoked nearly ten years ago after allegations of cheating in English language tests in the UK have asked British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to assist them in clearing their names after years of living in limbo.
According to the Guardian, the visas were revoked following allegations of cheating at two of the UK’s language testing centers for international students in a 2014 BBC documentary.
Following an investigation by Educational Testing Service (ETS), a company that administered the test at 96 exam centers, the UK Home Office abruptly terminated the visas of over 34,000 international students, effectively making their stay in the country illegal overnight.
Another 22,000 had their test results questioned.
These students were expelled from their universities with no right to stay, work, or, in a few cases, to appeal.
According to Migrant Voice, an organization that assists these students, they struggled with homelessness, high legal fees, and stress-related illnesses, and many others returned home.
Following the discovery of flaws in the evidence of cheating by judges and watchdogs, a few students won their cases, but many others are still in limbo and will present a petition to Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon.
Among the students affected is a 46-year-old Indian woman who has been separated from her children for over a decade because her community has asked her to clear cheating allegations over her before returning home.
According to the Guardian, it also includes an Indian man who is being sued by the company that sponsored him to come to the UK.
The students have petitioned the UK’s Indian-origin Prime Minister for a simple, free mechanism to apply for a decision or reconsideration of their case.
They also want every student’s immigration record cleared of cheating allegations, and they want to make it easier for them to return to school or help those on work or entrepreneur visas find new jobs or restart their businesses by removing the barriers created by the cheating allegations.
“The students came here to get a world-class education and the best student experience in the world, but instead their lives have been wrecked. It is time for the government to step in and end this nightmare,” Nazek Ramadan, director of Migrant Voice, told the Guardian.
According to a 2019 report by the Public Accounts Committee, the Home Office “rushed to penalise overseas students, and did not bother to find out whether ETS was involved in fraud or if it had reliable evidence”.
“It is entirely unacceptable that, despite now recognising that hundreds of people maintain their innocence, the Home Office has not acted to put right the wrongs caused by its actions,” the Guardian said quoting the report.
Source:IANS
