Fake student immigration - thousands pouring in through the back door.....

Latest report on fake Non-EU 'student' immigration into Britain from the Migration Watch site:-

Students and the net migration target
5th June, 2013
On the eve of debates in both Houses of Parliament, Migration Watch UK has issued a paper underlining the need to continue including students in the calculation of net migration.
Key points as follows:

• Our major competitors do include them (as Universities UK now apparently accept). To remove them would destroy the credibility of the government’s immigration policy.
• 20% of foreign students stay on legally but there is still no way of knowing that the other 80% have actually left.
• There is extensive evidence of abuse, especially from the Indian Sub-Continent. Students who overstay are harmful to our economy and society.
• A major effort is needed to cut out bogus students with a programme of interviews, as well as measures to persuade genuine students to leave at the end of their courses.
• The UK already receives 200,000 non EU students every year. Annual growth of 5% would increase the annual intake in ten years time to over 325,000. The system must be tightened before this number is allowed to increase any further.

Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said “Our major competitors, the US and Australia, both include students in net migration. The difference is that they do not have a target for net migration – perhaps because they are continents rather than small islands. The university lobby would be foolish to dismiss the strong public concern about present massive levels of immigration.”

Another report from the National Audit Office also highlights this 'fake student' threat:-

In a deeply critical study, the National Audit Office found a huge surge in students entering the country was largely fuelled by fake applications after a new visa system was introduced in 2009.

The report reveals the UK Border Agency probably let through 40,000 to 50,000 illegal students in this year, largely from India, Bangladesh and China. Most of these people have never been traced.

The number of illegal immigrants who pretended to be in education is more than ten times higher than the previous estimates.

Immigration officials took measures to tighten the system up by increasing checks on colleges and applicants, but the National Audit Office found its controls are still lacking.

Colleges have notified the UK Border Agency of more than 60,000 times of students not attending studies in breach of their visa conditions during the 18 months up until October 2011