BRITAIN TURNS ITS BACK ON FOREIGN STUDENTS AS IT TIGHTENS VISA RULES
By SHAMLAL PURI
Associate Publisher & Senior Editor -UK
shamlalpuri4@gmail.com
Worth Noting:
- The UK is among the signatories to the UN Geneva Convention and is obliged to accept refugees and asylum seekers.
- Under Article 31 of the 1951 Convention on Refugees, as a contracting state, it cannot impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened.
- But it can hold them in detention until, such time, their claim is proven to be genuine.
- Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her team of advisers are believed to be the architects behind the latest crackdown in what can be said to be a bid to impress the native white electorate. She is determined to control immigration. Her plans, observers say, have Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s backing.
A major political row is brewing in the United Kingdom as the Government announced that it would stop issuing visas to certain categories of international students, mostly from the developing countries, unless they have obtained admission to one of the ten top Universities which charge exorbitant fees.
Britain wants to block the entry of overseas planning to study for what it says are low-quality degrees even if they have the money to pay for their fees.
The move has infuriated UK universities, fearing bankruptcy because foreign students from affluent families pay high fees, which helps their financial lifeline. Their revenue is also a source of foreign exchange for the country.
Overall, the UK collected £10.7 billion from international students’ spending on university fees, £11.3 billion collected from non-fee incomes, and £0.6 billion of earnings from visitors.
At this time of the recession, which is expected to last at least two years, according to experts, the UK can ill-afford to lose those precious billions. Or is the Tory Government’s claim of the 2022 recession a camouflage to hide its inadequacies and failures?
Britain is taking this step to curtail uncontrolled immigration as the latest figures show an all–time record of net migration – 504,000 last year despite the Government’s plans to reduce new arrivals mainly from non-European countries.
The Rishi Sunak Government’s move comes following the release of the Office of the National Statistics (ONS) report on immigration which paints a grim picture of the current immigration crisis.
The UK is fighting to stop immigrants from all fronts – those crossing the English Channel in boats from European ports such as Calais in France, asylum seekers, some genuine, others fake, refugees which the UK is obliged to accept under the Geneva Convention and migrants seeking easy money in benefits.
The UK is among the signatories to the UN Geneva Convention and is obliged to accept refugees and asylum seekers.
Under Article 31 of the 1951 Convention on Refugees, as a contracting state, it cannot impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened.
But it can hold them in detention until, such time, their claim is proven to be genuine.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman and her team of advisers are believed to be the architects behind the latest crackdown in what can be said to be a bid to impress the native white electorate. She is determined to control immigration. Her plans, observers say, have Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s backing.
The Government’s desperation to tighten the noose on foreign students follows an increasing number of international students, mainly from developing countries, who it blames for the country’s immigration problems.
It will impose new restrictions on students bringing family members with them after the number of dependents multiplied some three times.
The move has sparked off a damaging rift in the Tory Government.
The Treasury, the Government’s economic and finance ministry, which maintains control over public spending and setting the direction of the UK’s monetary policy, is incensed that the drop in immigration could hit the British economy severely. Together with the Foreign Office and the Education Department, they will likely oppose the crackdown on international students.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has warned that any moves to curtail the number could harm the economy without a long-term strategy to raise the skills of British workers.
Government departments such as the Office of Budget Responsibility firmly believe that lower immigration could hit growth and public finances.
Another area likely to hit is the tourism industry because when the families of these students visit the UK to meet their children, they spend money on shopping, hotels and sightseeing.
The Government’s move could also have a detrimental effect on the United Kingdom’s reputation as an international education hub.
Traditionally, getting a desirable degree in the United Kingdom was every foreign student’s dream.
Their affluent parents would spend a lot of money to send their children for education ranging from public schools such as Eton or Harrow School to colleges and universities.
Getting a coveted UK degree was a passport to success once they returned to their countries.
It enables them to climb up their career ladder and earn a better salary, not to mention boost their reputation in society back home.
Armed with an impressive British education also brought better matrimonial proposals for these students after they returned home.
On completing their studies, many students, especially from the Asian and African countries disappear into the UK dodging the immigration system and better still, marry a white British partner to make their stay permanent.
Times have moved on since then. There is a strong likelihood that with the opening of better education opportunities in Canada, Australia, the USA and Dubai, where students from developing countries are welcomed, many will shun the United Kingdom as a study destination.
In the past, representatives of leading UK universities have travelled to foreign Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Far East and the Caribbean to attract nationals from these regions to study in the UK; one now wonders if, with the new restrictions in place, not many students will be interested in pursuing their studies in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland – which form the United Kingdom.
A vital source of foreign exchange will be lost if the Government persists in controlling the entry of overseas students.
The Prime Minister is determined to bring overall immigration arrival numbers down, and cracking on the foreign students and their families is one avenue that Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who appears to have Sunak’s backing, has resolved to tackle, irrespective of the consequences.
But Braveman’s plan is not shared widely in the Whitehall, the Centre of the Government.
The Foreign Office, which handles international relations between the UK and the rest of the world, has pointed out that the Government must ensure that its crackdown does not hit the soft power benefits the UK gets from international students.
The unstoppable Braverman, who may well lack diplomacy, triggered a controversy in which she accused Indian immigrants of being the largest group of people overstaying in the UK.
This sparked a backlash from the Indian Government, which has resented giving Indian tourist visas to British citizens in what is seen as a tit-for-tat move on the UK’s reluctance to issue visas to Indian citizens.
Even though Delhi has recently permitted e-visas for UK tourists, which it did not allow before, there is a severe threat that the Indians could re-ignite the row and withdraw that facility.
Braverman argues the need for tougher immigration policy because uncontrolled arrivals put pressure on housing supply, accommodation, education and other public services.
Rightly so, the Government has a point there, and the need to control immigration cannot be understated. But to hit the foreign student’s community below the belt by taking away their right to study in the UK if they can afford that education and do not depend on public funds is an action that has gone too far.
Successive Tory governments have failed to address adequately the issue of uncontrolled immigration.
Previous home secretaries in the Tory Government, and for that matter, the Labour Government too, from the 1960s to date, have failed to address the question of controlling illegal immigration, which could have exacerbated the current crisis.
Tory Home Secretaries such as William Whitelaw (1979), Leon Brittan (1983), Douglas Hurd (1985), David Waddington (1989), Kenneth Baker (1990), Kenneth Clarke (1992), Michael Howard (1993), five Labour Home Secretaries followed by Tory Mrs Theresa May (2010), Sajid Javid (2018) and recent names Priti Patel in the Boris Johnson Government and Grant Shapps (2022) may have papered over immigration reforms, but that did not resolve the problem the Sunak Government is fighting.
The infamous Windrush Scandal of 2018 that hit the heart of British politics has left behind a very sad memory for many migrants from the Caribbean.
In 2012 the then Home Secretary Theresa May instituted what is known as the Hostile Environment Policy, under which the authorities made it tough for immigrants to live in the UK without authority/visa.
Members of the Windrush generation of the Afro-Caribbean community diaspora who came to the UK before 1973 were declared illegals and threatened with deportation under that policy.
Empire Windrush was the name of the ship in which hundreds from the Caribbean came to work in the UK in 1948 through the recruitment system.
Many of those hit by investigations had their passports confiscated even though they were born British subjects.
Some 83 were deported from Britain, which ruled to be illegal expulsions.
The scandal hit this community so hard that thousands in the UK legally were sacked from their jobs, making them destitute. Many were prevented from returning to the UK.
Amber Rudd, the then Home Secretary, under whose shadow the Windrush scandal took place, was forced to resign.
The Government of the day was accused of “ignorance and thoughtlessness” in an independent probe into the scandal.
That was a blot on the British Government of the day.
Without a doubt, if the crackdown on foreign students occurs, that will be a blot on the Sunak Government.
The student community, while their entry and exit is policed properly, should be allowed to study in the UK. There are other ways of getting rid of overstayers and illegals.
The Government should go out full throttle to remove illegals, overstayers and those involved in sham marriages just to get a settlement visa.
The question of sham marriages is rife in the Asian and African communities who demand a divorce from the UK citizens they married once their immigration status for permanent settlement is confirmed. They are then free to live in the UK despite cheating on the visa system and start sponging on the welfare system.
British courts should order the removal of such foreigners who entered the UK on fake marriage visas, routinely issuing the deportation order at the time of the divorce when it is proved that the marriage was solely for a permanent stay in the UK.
It should be made a condition of the visa for the foreign citizen to remain in marriage or risk removal if it is proved with evidence that the marriage was for the convenience of obtaining permanent residence and the reason the visa was obtained and abused.
Many cheated spouses have reported such cases to the Home Office, but little or no action has been taken. The Home Office either couldn’t care less or did not have enough resources to pursue the parties.
There is a question of human rights on both the men’s and women’s sides, as there is a lot of abuse in diaspora marriages – domestic abuse, wives being battered by ill-educated diaspora British citizens, demands for dowry from the women’s families, and greed.
Here the Courts have to make the right decision depending on the evidence shown. Not an easy process as both sides will try to outdo each other paying them from their funds to engage intelligent lawyers who can exploit legal loopholes.
The legal system can be daunting even in the UK, with serious dangers of a miscarriage of justice.
The remarkable decision that the Government made was to kill off visa-generating factories from the plethora of private colleges in the UK set up solely to abuse the student visa system, which gave them the right to apply for a UK student visa upon enrolment.
They did not attend classes at these colleges, instead choosing to work full time in total breach of their visa conditions.
These dodgy colleges collected fees, and the students used them to enter the UK. They were closed.
Many such foreigners vanished and are overstayers, now free to work and live here.
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, was not wrong to say the visa system is abused, but the Home Office has to put its foot down to root out the illegals and overstayers rather than foreign students.
One Asian came to the UK for a holiday, decided to go underground, and vanished.
He was rumbled 14 years later when the Police summoned him to the station to prove his identity after a road traffic incident – going through red lights. They very intelligently traced him back to his entry point and the Asian was deported 14 years later.
Previously attempts have been made by such people as the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, among others, to regularise the immigration status of illegals and overstayers on the basis that they contribute to the British economy, could pay tax but were pumping the black economy. Why not legalise their stay even if they were here illegally?
When the Civuid-19 vaccines campaign was going on just two years ago, those staying here illegally were invited to get their vaccines, but few turned up, fearing that it could be a trap and they would be deported if found out.
Some of them died in the pandemic as they were not eligible for medical treatment under the National Health Service, and they could not afford to pay for private medical treatment.
In other cases, diaspora doctors shielded them from the Home Office authorities.
The immigration system of the UK is a catch-22 system. The Government does not appear to be serious about resolving the question of illegal immigration. It costs money, and in these days of the recession, the Government is putting its hands up, saying they do not have the money to fund elaborate plans to remove illegals.
Or look at it cynically.
Now and then, there comes a time when the Government of the day pulls out the immigration card to appease the angry native White electorate, including many racist right wingers, around the election season and beef up dwindling voter support.
The Labour Party has done it in the past, and the ruling Tories are probably following suit.
The dust on this debate may settle down after the next general election in December 2024.