BBC Panorama investigation finds English visa tests were FAKED - with answers read out for students
In one example, footage shows an invigilator simply reading out the answers to all 200 questions so the registered candidates can copy them down
Student visas are now the biggest source of non-EU immigration into the UK – but many are being gained illegally.
More than 200,000 are issued abroad each year while a further 100,000 or so people already in the UK get their student visas extended by the Home Office.
Foreign students must be proficient in English in order to obtain a visa but a BBC Panorama investigation found that for a fee, criminal immigration agents can help people get around the compulsory language tests, even if they speak little or no English.
Studentway Education, an immigration consultancy business in Southall, West London, offered a guaranteed pass for a £500 fee, before sending one of Panorama’s undercover students to sit the English exam at Eden College International in East London – an approved secure exam centre and a college designated as “trusted” by the Home Office.
Undercover footage shows the student making her way to a secure computer terminal linked up to a government-approved testing.
But minutes before the exam was due to start, new people entered the room. In the footage, the dozen or so candidates in the room are seen standing aside from their desks to allow these ‘fake sitters’ to sit in their places and take the exam for them.
At another multiple choice exam in the centre a few days later, the invigilator is seen simply reading out the answers to all 200 questions so the registered candidates can copy them down. A two-hour test took just seven minutes to complete.
Panorama showed the undercover footage of the fake exams to Home Secretary Theresa May MP. She described it as “incredible”, “very shocking” and a matter of “grave concern”.
She said: “I know there’s abuse in the system but I mean well done for actually uncovering the further abuse that is taking place. I mean, what you’ve shown here is people being able to effectively go into a situation where that is being faked for them and that’s a matter of grave concern.”
TOEIC is run by ETS, one of the biggest English language testing companies in the world. They told Panorama: “ETS does everything it can to detect and prevent rare instances of dishonest test administrators or test takers.”
Eden College International strongly deny any prior knowledge of, or complicity, in the frauds but did admit that early last year they investigated allegations against three freelance TOEIC exam invigilators.
The college say their findings were “not conclusive” but the individuals’ contracts were not renewed and say they took swift action to improve invigilation and monitoring.
Studentway Education deny fraud. Studentway director Varinder Bajarh told Panorama the agency is “a respected organisation” adding “we’re not a visa machine”.
He said two of the men Panorama caught on camera were never employees but may have used the office without his knowledge. However, Mr Bajarh is seen with one of the men, Vinod Kumar, in some of the BBC’s footage inside Studentway’s premises.
And the other man can be seen standing next to Mr Bajarh in a group photo of Studentway staff.
Culled From:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bb ... sh-3130112
Watch On:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... a_Scandal/
