Indian students ask Sunak to clear their names in English test scandal
Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Mar, 2023 06:34 PM
London, March 21 (IANS) A group of international students, including many Indians, who had their visas revoked almost 10 years ago after accusations of cheating in English language tests in the UK, have called on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to help them clear their names after years of living in limbo.
According to a Guardian report, the visas were revoked after a 2014 BBC documentary reported allegations of cheating at two of the UK's language testing centres for international students.
Following a probe by Educational Testing Service (ETS), a company that ran the test at 96 exam centres, the UK Home Office abruptly terminated the visas of more than 34,000 overseas students, making their stay in the country illegal overnight.
A further 22,000 were told that their test results were "questionable".
These students' were thrown out of their universities with immediate effect, and with no right to stay, work or in a few cases to appeal.
They struggled with homelessness, huge legal fees, stress-induced illnesses and many others returned home, according to Migrant Voice, an organisation, which is supporting these students.
After judges and watchdog reports highlighted flaws in the evidence of cheating, a few students won their cases, but many others, who are still stuck in limbo, will be presenting a petition to Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon.
The affected students include a 46-year-old Indian woman who has been separated from her children for more than a decade because her community asked her to clear cheating allegations over her before returning home.
It also includes an Indian man who is being sued by the company that sponsored him to come to the UK, the Guardian report said.
In their petition to the UK's Indian-origin Prime Minister, the students have called for a simple, free mechanism to apply for a decision or reconsideration of their case.
They also want the immigration record of every student cleared of cheating, and facilitate their return to study, or support those on work or entrepreneur visas to find new jobs or restart their businesses -- by removing barriers created by the cheating allegations.
"The students came here to get a world-class education and the best student experience in the world, but instead their lives have been wrecked. It is time for the government to step in and end this nightmare," Nazek Ramadan, director of Migrant Voice, told the Guardian.
According to a 2019 report by the Public Accounts Committee, the Home Office "rushed to penalise overseas students, and did not bother to find out whether ETS was involved in fraud or if it had reliable evidence".
"It is entirely unacceptable that, despite now recognising that hundreds of people maintain their innocence, the Home Office has not acted to put right the wrongs caused by its actions," the Guardian said quoting the report.
At 5.48 p.m., a 22-year-old Danish man in possession of a rifle and ammunition was arrested outside the shopping mall. The motive for the shooting remains unknown and the suspect will face questioning by a judge on Monday. On Sunday night, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark had suffered a cruel attack.
US attorneys said the defendants illicitly prescribed over 13 million pills and made false claims to illegally collect over $20 million from Medicare, over $17 million from Medicaid and over $15 million from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, from 2013 to 2018.
Problems were popping up well before the weekend, with some disruptions caused by thunderstorms that slowed air traffic. American Airlines canceled 8% of its flights on Tuesday and Wednesday, and United Airlines scrubbed 4% of its schedule both days, according to FlightAware.
The biggest weekly rise in new COVID-19 cases was seen in the Middle East, where they increased by 47%, according to the report released late Wednesday. Infections rose by about 32% in Europe and Southeast Asia, and by about 14% in the Americas, WHO said.
At least 40 people were found dead inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas, local authorities said. The tractor-trailer truck was found on Monday evening next to railroad tracks in a remote area on the city's southern outskirts, Xinhua news agency reported citing local media as saying.
The News, quoting police sources, said that Satnam Singh had borrowed the jeep from a friend and detectives were looking into whether he was the shooter's intended target or had been mistakenly killed by someone who actually wanted to attack the owner of the vehicle.
