BBC News – Tamil deportations from UK blocked by London High Court

Thursday, 28 February 2013. The High Court in London has blocked the deportation of a group of failed Tamil asylum seekers scheduled to be sent back to Sri Lanka on Thursday.

The ruling means they will be able to remain in the UK pending investigations into their contention that they will be tortured if they are made to return.

The UK Border Agency told the BBC that it was “disappointed” by the ruling, and that it would appeal.

Human rights groups say some Tamils sent back earlier had been tortured.

They say that in some cases they were subjected to abuse because of their alleged links to separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. The Sri Lankan government denies this.

Sri Lanka’s civil war came to an end in 2009, after 26 years of conflict and up to 100,000 casualties as the Tamil Tigers fought for independence.

‘Fallen prey to lies’

It is believed to be the first time that a UK courts has blocked the deportation of a group of Tamils to Sri Lanka, although many individuals over the last 18 months have won last-minute court injunctions preventing their return.

In a statement released late on Wednesday, the Border Agency said the ruling did “not represent a blanket ban on returns to Sri Lanka”.

However lawyers for Tamils under threat of deportation insist that it has wider implications, because it applies to all other failed Tamil asylum seekers – including those in detention – meaning none can be removed at present.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has accused the Sri Lankan government of abuses, including killing former Tamil Tigers and political opponents.

On Wednesday, Sri Lankan envoy Mahinda Samarasinghe accused Ms Pillay of bias in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Mr Samarasinghe said his country had “fallen prey to lies” spread by former rebels.

Correspondents say his criticisms reflect government sensitivities over Sri Lanka’s rights record ahead of Colombo hosting a summit of British Commonwealth countries in November. Campaigners are calling for it to be boycotted.

On Tuesday Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organisation, accused Sri Lankan security forces of committing crimes of sexual violence against ethnic Tamils in custody.

Sri Lanka’s government also dismissed the report as “lies”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21610953

The Hindu – The ultimate nightmare of deportation

There might just be some genuine students amongst the 300, HSKh Man in Blue

With London Metropolitan University banned from sponsoring and teaching non-EU students, thousands of youngsters, including 300-odd from India find themselves in limbo

Hasan Suroor

London, 30 August 2012. More than 2,000 foreign students, including several hundred from India, may be forced to return home or be deported, after the London Metropolitan University (LMU) was, on Thursday, banned from sponsoring and teaching non-European Union students for allegedly harbouring illegal immigrants in the guise of students.

The students, mostly from the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Caribbean, have 60 days until the start of the new academic session in October to find another university to sponsor them or go home – failing which they would be deported.

The university has some 300 Indian students.

Amid scenes of anger, panic and confusion, the Universities Minister David Willetts announced a task force to help the affected students and the Higher Education Funding Council for England promised to work “tirelessly” to support them.

“It is important that genuine students who are affected through no fault of their own are offered prompt advice and help, including, if necessary, with finding other institutions at which to finish their studies,” said Mr Willetts.

Denouncing the move as “outrageous”, a group of students held a silent protest outside 10 Downing Street. They sat in front of its gates with tape over their mouths.

Emmanuel Egwu, a final-year student, echoed the widespread anger and anxiety saying: “I pay a lot of money. I’ve spent £30,000 to 40,000 in tuition fees – my parents sell properties and land to make sure they can pay my fees. What’s going to happen to people like me?”

Earlier, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) announced that the LMU’s Highly Trusted Sponsor Status (HTS) which allowed it to sponsor non-EU foreign students had been revoked, as it had “failed to address serious and systemic failings” relating to suspected visa abuse identified six months ago.

Immigration minister Damian Green said the university had proved to be a “very, very deficient” sponsor. Many studying there when they did not have permission to stay in the country, and a “significant proportion” did not have a good standard of English. There was no proof that half of those sampled were turning up to lectures, he claimed.

The vice-chancellor Malcolm Gillies rejected the claims and accused the UKBA of “rewriting its own guidelines”.

“I am not going to say that we accept what is stated in the letter sent to us revoking our licence. We only received it at 8 pm last night and are currently doing a full analysis, working together with the best lawyers in the country. I would go so far as to say that UKBA has been rewriting its own guidelines on this issue and this is something which should cause concern to all universities in the UK,” he said.

In a statement, the university said the implications of the revocation were “hugely significant and far-reaching” and it had “already started to deal with these”.

“Our absolute priority is to our students, both current and prospective, and the University will meet all its obligations to them,” it said.

Many students said a helpline set up by the university was simply giving them telephone numbers of other universities where they could apply.

The National Union of Students called the decision “heavy-handed”, while Keith Vaz, chairman of parliament’s home affairs select committee said it had “left thousands of students in limbo” and could harm Britain’s reputation abroad.

Foreign students are much sought after by Britain’s cash-starved universities as they pay as much as three times more for the same course compared to their highly-subsidised British peers. LUM, which recruits heavily abroad, has some 30,000 foreign students.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3839416.ece

Special to the Tribune – UK cancels varsity licence, Indian students in trouble

Shyam Bhatia in London

Friday 31 August. Indians are among the foreign students facing an uncertain future, including possible deportation, following the British Government’s decision to strip the London Metropolitan University’s (LMU) right to sponsor visas.

Both current and future students are in a state of limbo after the UK Border Agency (UKBA) revoked the university’s ‘Highly Trusted Status’ (HTS), meaning it will no longer be allowed to authorise visas, leaving even enrolled foreign students uncertain about whether they will be able to complete their courses.

Even worse, as many as 2,000 foreign students face deportation unless they find some other approved university or college that is prepared to sponsor them.

“The implications of the revocation are hugely significant and far-reaching, and the university has already started to deal with these” says a statement issued by the university, one of the largest in London.

“It will be working very closely with the UK Border Agency, Higher Education Funding Council for England, National Voice of Students (NUS) and its own Students’ Union. Our absolute priority is our students, both current and prospective, and the university will meet all its obligations to them,” the statement said.

The Border Agency is concerned that some students at this particular university have remained in the UK without valid visas and others have used their visas by way of getting into the country as illegal immigrants. London Metropolitan has also been criticised for failing to adequately test both the English language and general academic ability of its foreign students.

Indians currently represent about 10 per cent, or 350 students, of the foreign student body represented at the two central London campuses of the university.

LMU vice-chancellor Malcolm Gillies has denied his university was a threat to immigration control. Responding to the British Home Office claims that the university’s licence was being revoked “due to a failure to comply with their sponsor duties and the resulting threat to immigration control,” he said, “The university is extremely disappointed with this news. It comes after six weeks of suspension during which the university has done everything it could do to demonstrate that the current state of its operations warrants continuing HTS (highly trusted sponsor) status and that a new management has worked to remedy past weaknesses.”

Students confused, in panic

Amitabh Das, a first year student from Kolkata studying for a degree in public relations, told The Tribune, “Definitely, we Indian students will be affected. It’s very sad that the university may not be there for us to continue and we may have to go back if the university’s sponsorship licence is taken away. I am a 20-year-old and completely confused about what to do.”

Another Indian student said in a message sent to LMU, “I have read that the university’s student visa licence has been suspended by the UKBA. Can you please let me know the status of your college now? I almost applied for the September 2012 intake for MSc Aviation Management. Now, I am in two minds. Please, please, please clarify.”

Student Union official Adnan Pavel said, “Our licence has been suspended for the last six weeks and the university is suffering. Government ministers say no final decision has been made, but students are scared about what may happen.

Long-term, there will be a negative impact, especially for students from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh who will be reluctant to come. They will prefer to go to a university in countries such as USA, Canada and Australia.”

Pavel, who is from Bangladesh, told the local media: “If the university’s licence was revoked while I was out of the UK I might not be able to come back. I am the only son and my parents were waiting for me. But after I read the story and saw how critical the situation was I couldn’t fly. I paid £580 for a flight with Emirates, but I lost all the money because I cancelled at the 11th hour.”

He added: “Students are in panic, they do not know what to do. Some of my friends studying for PhDs just need to complete their dissertations. Which university will take them if they just need to complete one semester?”

Another Bangladeshi student and union official, 26-year-old Syed Rumman, 26, told London’s Evening Standard newspaper: “I am also on the university’s governing body. If I am forced to leave, the students would lose out on representation. The students are panicking. They have come all the way from their home countries and have left their families, and this news is causing a lot of stress for them. This would be a threat to higher education across the whole of the UK. People think a British education is the best in the world but they won’t come here if this happens.”

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120831/main8.htm

The Hindu – Indian couple held for fraud

Hasan Suroor

London, 23 May 2012. In a second case of its kind in less than a week, two Indians have been jailed for running an immigration racket, following an investigation by the Home Office.

Srinath Aredla (39) and Santosh Koletti (33), both from London, were sentenced to a total of 11 years after they were found guilty of “conspiracy to defraud” by running bogus companies that helped people settle in Britain illegally.

Aredla was sentenced to six-and-a-half years, while Koletti was sentenced to four-and-a-half years.

The U.K. Border Agency, which enforces immigration rules, said it estimated that they made more than £800,000 by supplying fake documents, such as payslips, to support their clients’ applications for stay in Britain as highly skilled migrants.

The scandal was detected when the Home Office noticed a large number of applications from employees of one group of companies that were being dealt with by a particular solicitor. The men were arrested in August last year after a raid on their properties in Hounslow, West London.

“This was a sophisticated scandal, which netted the perpetrators a large amount of money — we estimate around £800,000.

That Aredla was prepared to misuse his position as a practising solicitor to help people break the law makes his offence all the more serious. And not only will the pair face deportation after serving their sentences, we have also begun Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings to prevent them from benefiting financially from their crimes,” a spokesman said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article3447103.ece

The Tribune – Punjabi singer among 16 held in UK

London, February 16. A singer from Punjab is among 16 Indians arrested in a series of operations by Britain’s immigration officials for offences that include entering into arrangements with EU nationals to register bogus marriages in order to stay in the UK.

Official sources here said operations were carried out in recent months at various places in Britain, including companies where some of those arrested were working illegally. Garry Sandhu (29) described as a “rising Bhangra star”, had been sent back to India because he did not have permission to be in the UK. He first came to the UK under a different identity and claimed asylum, which was refused by the UK Border Agency.

He was then placed on immigration bail but absconded. He came to the attention of immigration officials several years later when he was caught driving without insurance, a press release said. Six Indian nationals were arrested for working illegally, and jailed for taking part in bogus marriages. The six men were arrested in enforcement operations in South Wales.

On February 9, the men were found working illegally in shops in Caerphilly. They had committed immigration offences, including overstaying their visas and working in breach of their visa conditions.

All six men have been detained pending their removal from the UK. The shops where they worked illegally now face fines of up to 10,000 pounds for each illegal worker, unless they can prove that they carried out the correct pre-employment checks.

A UK Border Agency spokesperson in South Wales said: “This series of successful raids shows that our officers will track down immigration offenders wherever they are. Any business that takes on a foreign national without permission to work is breaking the law and faces a heavy fine.” (PTI)

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120217/main5.htm