Bogus Student Visa Racket Costs Taxpayer up to £500 Million per Year
The bogus student visa points-based system racket, started by Labour and endorsed by the Tories in their election manifesto, costs British taxpayers anywhere between £300 and £500 million per year, a new study has shown.
Although liberals and some university staff have claimed that a crackdown on the student visa swindle — which saw 90,000 foreigners enter Britain last year — will cost money, the amount lost is far less than the cost to taxpayers which the system causes, said independent think tank Migrationwatch UK.That body said in a report that a crackdown on bogus student visa applications “is likely to lead to a loss of some £95 million a year fee income to colleges offering below degree level courses, this has to considered alongside the £300—£500 million a year that it has estimated the taxpayer must fund to support British workers made unemployed by bogus students working illegally.”
“This is yet another legacy of the previous Government’s disastrous management of the immigration system which has once again left the taxpayer picking up the bill,” Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said in a statement, ignoring the fact that the Conservative government had specifically endorsed that policy in their election manifesto.
“It is neither economically justifiable for the hard pressed taxpayer nor fair to British workers who have to compete for scarce jobs with people who have cheated the system to come here,” Sir Andrew continued.
Migrationwatch did, however, point out that that it was “important to be clear that the purpose of the government’s measures is not to reduce the number of students but to reduce the exploitation of the present system by bogus students” and went on to endorse the typically Tory nonsense of ‘net immigration'.
“In the normal course of events, students should leave after completing their courses to be replaced by others. Over time, therefore, the number of those who arrive will be counter balanced by those leaving with no effect on net migration,” Sir Andrew said.
Meanwhile, a separate report has revealed that last year alone, no less than 90,000 foreign ‘students’ entered Britain by applying to colleges which are not on any Home Office ‘trusted’ list.
A significant number of these entered the country since the election last year, meaning they entered under the Tory government.
Students are only supposed to be allowed to enter the country to attend colleges which have been checked and approved, but this rule has not been applied with any consistency.
According to the figures, there were 613 private colleges which are not ‘highly trusted’ in existence in January this year. Between them, these ‘colleges’ have the ability to sponsor a total of 280,000 international students.
Many of these colleges have been exposed as offering totally bogus courses in ‘hospitality', ‘business administration’ and other obvious hoaxes.
