Memo reveals lax student visa enforcement
Foreign students whose visas have expired are not being prioritised by the government, a leaked memo suggests.
The Daily Mail newspaper has published a note written by the Border and Immigration Agency’s (BIA) director of enforcement, Jonathan Lindley, which appears to criticise regional officers’ vigorous enforcement of such deportations.
“I am surprised that any of these cases have come sufficiently high within enforcement teams’ priorities to merit such quick removal action,” the memo states.
“Please instruct your enforcement teams not to proceed with enforcing any student refusal cases unless they are deemed, at at least inspector level, to be a priority.”
The memo says civil servants dealing with student cases have been told not to pass further cases to enforcement teams and reveals BIA chief executive Lin Homer personally intervened to prevent one deportation.
Ms Homer said today the case involved a student who had entered incorrect credit card details on an application submitted before the relevant deadline. In the leaked memo Mr Lindley says she issued “critical comments” to staff about the case.
A statement from Ms Homer released today said: “Student cases that show evidence of fraud or corruption will continue to be referred for enforcement action.”
Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis described government priorities as “warped” and said the memo’s contents were “astonishing”.
“These revelations reflect the continued chaos at the BIA, which is already struggling to deport foreign prisoners and remove hundreds of thousands of failed asylum seekers,” he said.
“In 2004, the government announced a series of measures aimed at cracking down on bogus colleges used by ‘students’ to stay in the country illegally. In 2008 the home secretary cannot be bothered to deport illegal overstayers even when they are caught.”
