Keith Vaz, Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee has announced that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have entered Britain posing as students at bogus colleges and coupled with this the Government is doing nothing to track them down.

Vaz came out with a cracking phrase that sums up the Governments lack of control in this area.  Vaz wants the Government to stop the use of the word ‘college’ by ‘any premises above a fish and chip shop’ that wants to claim it is a reputable educational establishment.

What is most scary is that the Home Affairs report states it is possible that terrorists use this route to gain access to the UK.  I think we all knew that anyway….but protecting this country from attack is pivotal and all backdoor routes for terrorists to get into the UK must be shut and all applications scrutinised.

The report also states there could be up to 2,200 colleges that were not legitimate but were accredited by the Government under a system that was running until March this year.

Quoting the report:  ‘Firm enforcement action must be taken against any individual whose student visa has expired to ensure that they leave the country, as well as against those who have set up bogus colleges to perpetrate visa fraud’.  ’We have received no evidence that the Home Office has made adequate preparations to deal with this issue  we are extremely disappointed that the Government has ignored repeated warnings from the education sector about the problem of bogus colleges’.

The Government’s response.  More checks in the future!

This looks like another mess that the Conservatives will need to clear up and seek to locate the ‘needles in the haystack’ of students with expired visas and those who came in under bogus applications!