Anger As 2,000 Foreign Students Face Deportation As Ministers Revoke 'Deficient' University's Right To Admit Foreigners .

 

Demonstration: Foreign students from London's Metropolitan University protest outside downing Street after being told they face deportation due a to a new Government ruling that revokes the sponsorship of their visas

A Government decision that could see more than 2,000 foreign students being deported was today met with outrage by MPs and academics and sparked a sit-in protest outside Downing Street.

Anger erupted after the London Metropolitan University had its right to sponsor visas revoked after Immigration Minister Damian Green said the institution had been 'very deficient in regulating the process'.

He claimed that a quarter of students there did not have permission to stay in the country and many had a poor grasp of English.

The minister also suggested that fewer than half showed up for lectures - adding to widely-held fears that foreign students are abusing their visas so that they can stay in the country to work.

'Any one of those breaches would be serious,' he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

'We found all three of those breaches at London Metropolitan.

'What we found here is a serious systemic failure where it appears that the university doesn’t have the capacity to be a proper sponsor and to have confidence that the students coming have the right to be here in the first place.

'I’m not chucking anyone out, we have actually set up a task force to make sure genuine students can stay in the country.'

The action by the UK Border Agency prompted a sit-in protest outside Downing Street by LMU students who taped their mouths shut - apparently to symbolise losing their right to learn.

They also carried signs which read ‘International Students Not Welcome Here’ and gave out leaflets with a design showing broken Olympic rings before police moved them to the other side of the street.

Forensic science student Emmanuel Egwu, from Abuja in Nigeria, was told last night that he would not be able to do his third and final year at the university.

The 24-year-old said he had paid £30,000 into his education after forking out for a foundation course and two years at university.

‘I have been paying loads of tuition fees, my parents have been spending a lot of money, selling properties back home to make sure my tuition fees have been paid. It’s like flushing money down the toilet,’ he said.

 

Meanwhile,

London Metropolitan University has had its right to sponsor visas revoked

Report claimed that a quarter of foreign students did not have valid visas, few showed up to lectures and many had a poor grasp of English

Now students face deportation if they can't find new sponsor within 60 days

Students - some who have already spent £30,000 on their education at LMU - protest outside Downing Street

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2195566/London-Metropolitan-Universitys-visa-licence-revoked-students-fear-deportation.html#ixzz252vLEgww