50,000 foreign students stay here every year
NEARLY 50,000 foreign students a year are not returning home after completing their courses.
Official figures have highlighted the scale of abuse of the system by immigrants desperate to stay in the UK after finishing their education.
It will fuel concerns about the extent to which non-EU citizens are able to exploit the rules after enrolling on courses at colleges or universities. Failure to send overseas graduates home adds to the pressure piled on public services.
Meanwhile, it emerged the Office for National Statistics (ONS) might have undercounted the number of overseas students arriving in the country.
Statisticians admit they only question those arriving in the country between 6am and 10pm – meaning flights landing at night are missed from the International Passenger Survey, which is used to calculate immigration.
ONS experts extrapolate the data, so insist there ‘isn’t a problem’. But the organisation is carrying out a pilot study this year to find out if large numbers of students are being missed.
It comes as Cabinet ministers have warned Theresa May that the Government will never meet the Tory pledge to cut net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’ unless foreign students are removed from the numbers.
Of the 126,000 students who arrived last year, some 70 per cent were from outside the EU. ONS figures showed that in the year to December, some 87,000 people from outside Europe received visas to
‘Disappear into black economy’
study, but only 41,000 overseas students left – a difference of 46,000. In previous years the deficit has been closer to 100,000.
Some of those will take legitimate jobs, be given permission to settle with a part- ner or undertake further studies. But an ONS report last year said: ‘Some of those people who say they come to study do not actually leave the UK at the end of their courses.
‘They [non-EU students] overstay their visa and remain in the UK illegally.’
Past estimates have suggested around one third – equating to around 17,000 students annually – remain here unlawfully and work in the black economy.
Mrs May is facing a Cabinet revolt over her refusal to countenance the records change, which could slash net migration – the difference between those arriving and those leaving – by more than a third. The total is currently 273,000. Though it would help meet the Government’s target, she believes it would be duping the public by artificially deflating the total numbe arriving here.
Alp Mehmet, of campaign group Migration Watch, said recently: ‘Universities refuse to acknowledge or show any willingness to make sure those who have been to their institutions leave after completing their studies ...
‘ Tens of thousands just disappear into the black economy. Many universities simply see overseas students as a cash cow and wash their hands of them at the end of their courses. This is unacceptable.’