Student visa numbers soar after new rules take effect

The number of students entering the UK from India and Bangladesh has risen sharply since a new visa system began.

The UK Border Agency had said it believed the total number of students was "roughly the same" as last year.

But a Freedom of Information request has revealed the number of students entering from these countries alone nearly tripled over the summer.

The Home Office insists that the figures do not reflect a global trend.

'Raise the bar'

The new points-based immigration system was introduced last year. It was designed to be tougher and more selective than the old one.

The then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith promised that the new system would "raise the bar" and lead to "fewer migrants coming to the UK from outside the EU".

But earlier this month, immigration officers told BBC Radio 5 live they feared more bogus students are arriving in the UK under the new system, partly because of the large volume of arrivals which must be processed.

Officers said a significant number of those arriving on student visas had previously been denied entry to the UK, and they suspected that many had come here to work and not study.

One Heathrow-based whistleblower told the Donal MacIntyre programme that many so-called students could not speak English, and knew nothing about the courses they claimed to be studying.

He said many of these students came from the Indian subcontinent.

Sharp increase

Responding to the immigration officers' concerns, Jeremy Oppenheim, who runs the points-based system at the UK Border Agency, said that the number of students coming into the UK this year was "roughly the same as last year".

But figures subsequently obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act show there has been a sharp increase in the number of student visas granted in India and Bangladesh - two of the biggest centres for non-EU student visa applications.

Between June and August 2008 (before the new system for students came into force), the British High Commissions in Mumbai, New Delhi and Dhaka issued 6,771 student visas.

During the same period this year (under the new points-based immigration system), the three offices issued 19,950 visas - an increase of 195 per cent.

The number of student visa applications rejected also rose from 3,997 to 6,261.

'Flexible'

The government says it has cracked down on bogus colleges, and that the number of institutions able to bring students into the UK from outside the European Union has been halved since the introduction of the new points-based immigration system.

In a statement, Mr Oppenheim told the Donal MacIntyre programme: "The UK Border Agency has 74 visa-issuing posts worldwide, so three cities should not be taken as representative of a global trend.

"The points-based system is designed to be flexible," he added.

"It enables us to regularly check and monitor all student applications and colleges to ensure that they meet the required standards, and take action where necessary."

VIDEO HERE

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The Truth is Out!

Labour 'deliberately let migrants in to make Britain more multicultural and so Tories could be accused of racism'

Ministers today faced calls for an inquiry into claims that their open-door immigration policy was designed to make Britain more multicultural and allow Labour to portray the Tories as racists.
A former Labour adviser alleged that the Government opened up Britain's borders in part to try to humiliate Right-wing opponents of immigration.
The Conservatives said that if true, the claim demonstrated 'disgracefully irresponsible' decision-making and called for an investigation.

Former Labour minister Frank Field said: 'I am speechless at the idea that people thought they could socially engineer a nation on this basis.'
The Daily Mail reported on Saturday the controversial claims by Andrew Neather, who worked for Tony Blair and Jack Straw.
He said Labour's relaxation of immigration controls in 2000 was a deliberate attempt to engineer a 'truly multicultural' country and plug gaps in the jobs market.
He said the 'major shift' in immigration policy was inspired by a 2001 policy paper from the Performance and Innovation Unit, a Downing Street think-tank based in the Cabinet Office.
Civil servant Jonathan Portes, who wrote the immigration report, was a speechwriter for Gordon Brown and is now an aide to Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell.

The report painted a rosy picture of mass immigration, stating: 'There is little evidence that native workers are harmed by migration. The broader fiscal impact is likely to be positive because a greater proportion of migrants are of working age and migrants have higher average wages than natives.'

It added: 'Most British regard immigration as having a positive effect on British culture.'
Mr Neather said the published version of the report focused on the labour market case for immigration. But he added: 'Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.'
Home Office Minister Barbara Roche, who pioneered the open-door policy, was also said to have wanted to restore her reputation on the Left of the Labour Party. She had come under fire for attacking the use of children for begging by asylum seekers as 'vile'.

Ministers were reluctant to discuss the move publicly for fear that it would alienate Labour's core working-class vote, Mr Neather said. But they hoped it would allow them to paint the Conservatives as xenophobic and out of touch.

'I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended - even if this wasn't its main purpose - to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date,' Mr Neather added.

Labour strategists went on to attack Tory leaders William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard as out of touch when they raised questions about immigration policy.

Mr Hague was accused of 'playing the race card' in 2001 when he said Mr Blair was turning Britain into a 'foreign land'.

Mr Howard was called a 'racist' in 2004 after he went to the BNP stronghold of Burnley to denounce Labour's stance on asylum seekers.

Mr Neather defended the open-door policy, saying mass immigration had 'enriched' Britain.

But Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green said: 'If this is true, then it would be a disgracefully irresponsible way for a government to run their immigration policy.

'To organise it on the basis of what might embarrass the Opposition would be shameful. I would urge the Home Affairs Select Committee to look at this whole episode.

'And ministers must now be honest with the British people. Do they still believe, as they did five years ago, that uncontrolled immigration is good for the country?

'If they don't, will they apologise for the mess they have made of the immigration system in the meantime?'

Jack Straw last night dismissed Mr Neather's claims as untrue.

A spokesman for the Justice Secretary said: 'This is complete rubbish and the proof of that is the fact that Jack Straw introduced and was implementing the Immigration and Asylum Act at just this time, which tightened up controls and for which he was roundly condemned by all liberals.'

However, Labour's former welfare minister Mr Field, co-chairman of the cross-party Group for Balanced Migration, said a 'beam of truth' had been shone on the immigration issue.

'It is so dangerous that I cannot believe anybody even contemplated this course of action,' he said.

'I can't believe anybody could have been this stupid. All along anyone who raised questions was told they must be racist.

'Ministers used studies like the one saying only 13,000 people would come from the EU accession countries to say we had all got our figures wrong.

'Even now people are peddling the idea that it's all over-exaggerated. The truth is that, without any changes, we are headed for a population of 70million within 20 years.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'Our new flexible points-based system gives us greater control of those coming to work or study from outside Europe, ensuring that only those that Britain needs can come.

'Britain's borders are stronger than ever before and we are rolling out ID cards for foreign nationals.

'We have introduced civil penalties for those employing illegal workers and from the end of next year our electronic border system will monitor 95 per cent of journeys in and out of the UK.

'The British people can be confident that immigration is under control.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1222998/Labour-open-borders-storm-Demands-inquiry-claims-migrants-let-Tories-accused-racism.html#ixzz0V9qO8mPg

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Squeak the Squirrel Learns to Get Food

No politics today, instead watch in awe as squeak the squirrel pulls string.

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David Cameron's message for Ramadan

David Cameron has sent his very best wishes to Muslim communities in Britain and around the world, as they start the month of Ramadan.

"I know the significance this month has for all Muslims", he said, "and there are lessons which members of all faiths and none can learn from this observance. These include the importance of reflection, charity and self-control."

He added that these are principles which help to strengthen society as a whole, and "are a sign of the contribution which Muslim communities and the Muslim faith has made to our national life".

I disagree Dave, I dont think that its the Muslim communities and the Muslim faith that have brought the values of 'reflection, charity and self-control'.

I have always given to charities, often reflect on the past and contemplate the future and I have self control, all this without the aid of the Muslim community.

'How did I develop these values then?' I hear you ask, well they where taught to me by my parents, who where taught it by their parents.

It is not 'the contribution which Muslim communities and the Muslim faith has made to our national life' that we should be thanking.

It is the failure of succesive Labour and Conservative governments we should be blaming.

Maybe if we did not have our national identity removed we would be more contemplatative.
Maybe if people had to work for what they have instead of having benefits thrown at them they would be more charitable.
Maybe if crime was actually punished people would have more self control.

Maybe you would like to 'reflect' on this Dave.

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Islam's European Conquest: Is America Next?

Article by By John Griffing:

Britain, birthplace of parliamentary democracy, has fallen to Islam. Oxford, once home to the likes of C.S. Lewis, now houses a giant Eastern Islamic Studies Center. If this were the only Islamic addition to Oxford, the mood would be less somber, but when Oxford citizens are forced to awake every morning to the Muslim call to prayer with the full consent of the Church of England, nothing short of conquest has taken place.........

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