'Bogus' colleges manipulating immigration system

The UK's points-based immigration system for foreign students is easy to manipulate and the rate of bogus entrants is worse than ever, an immigration officer claimed yesterday.

The officer, who is based at Heathrow Airport, said non-EU students who had been refused visas up to nine times were now getting in.

He said the students often knew little about the course they were supposed to be studying and added that a lot of the colleges were "bogus".

The immigration officer told BBC Radio 5 Live's Donal MacIntyre programme that in the past he would have been able to refuse and remove the passenger.

"Now we cannot do this," he said.

"We have an awful lot of students who have been refused five, six, even up to nine visas to come here to this country, whether it be for working holidays or student applications. And they're now coming here."

He went on: "I'm not able to compare figures, as we don't collate figures at the airport, but just the sheer volume has taken us aback and on occasions we've had to shut the hall as we couldn't cope with the volume we've had."

He said it had led to a situation where planes were being backed up and delayed in order to clear the arrivals area before more passengers can arrive.

Immigration officials are told to give the benefit of the doubt, even if they suspect the student is bogus, as they do not have the resources to interrogate them, he said.

The officer blamed the new administrative procedures and the pressure of having so many new arrivals for the problems.

Dr Stephen Vickers, the former chief executive of the British Accreditation Council, one of the Home Office-recognised bodies which accredits private colleges, confirmed the concern regarding bogus establishments.

He told the programme that some colleges were fronts for migrants to come and work in the UK which would try to appear respectable when they were warned about an inspection.

But Jeremy Oppenheim, head of the points-based system for the UK Border Agency, said: "The points-based system means that only those colleges and schools who provide quality education and take responsibility for their students will be licensed to bring in foreign students.