London, July 21 (Inditop.com) Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants may have entered Britain using visas obtained through bogus colleges but the government is doing little to track them down, says a group of British MPs.
The British parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee, which is chaired by ethnic Indian MP Keith Vaz, said up to 2,200 illegitimate colleges could have been operating until the government came up with stringent registration rules this March.
It said these colleges may have allowed the entry of illegal immigrants whose numbers “could be in the tens of thousands”.
“We have received no evidence that the Home Office has made adequate preparations to deal with this issue,” the Committee said in a report released Monday, adding it was “deeply concerned” that authorities gave advance notice to 85 percent of the colleges ahead of inspection visits.
“We are extremely disappointed that the government has ignored repeated warnings from the education sector about the problem of bogus colleges,” the committee said.
The government must restrict the term ‘college’, to prevent any premises above a fish and chip shop from being able to claim it is a reputed educational institution,” said Vaz.
However, the report found “no substantial” evidence that British colleges had been used as cover by terrorists.
Since March this year, there has been a more tightly controlled register of institutions which are allowed to recruit students from outside Europe.
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: “Before we tightened controls around 4,000 UK institutions offered courses to foreign students, but under the new system only around 1,600 can currently bring students into the country from outside Europe.”
