People accused of cheating on an English test for migrants are still fighting to clear their names, eight years after the scandal was first exposed.
More than 2,500 people were deported – many despite being clearly able to speak English – and at least 7,200 were forced to leave the UK after international testing organisation ETS accused them of cheating in an exam it had set and marked.
The crackdown was triggered in 2014 when a BBC Panorama investigation revealed two London test centres were running fraudulent schemes using language-proficient substitutes to sit tests on behalf of applicants who would then falsely obtain passes to use to apply for visas.
This led the Home Office to order ETS to investigate testing in 100 of its contracted centres. Following the review, the organisation produced a list of thousands of test sitters who had allegedly cheated.
Many of these alleged cheats were thrown out of the UK without any opportunity to challenge or even see the evidence against them. The Home Office cancelled their visas, with no right to appeal in Britain. Many proved or put forward strong evidence that the claims against them were false.
The Home Office continues to stand by the list, meaning those on it who claim they are innocent who remain in the UK have been forced to fight to clear their names and remain in the country.
Last month, Labour MP Stephen Timms said in response to a BBC Newsnight investigation: “Clearly, ETS was a discredited witness and yet the Home Office relied on them totally.”
He said the initial figures weren’t challenged because they suited the government’s agenda of creating a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants. “They saw here an opportunity, tragically, to do that and thousands of innocent people have paid a very high price as a result,” he said.
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Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Meg Hillier, added that the government’s actions had created “huge injustice” and it should now drop outstanding legal action against alleged cheats, most of whom came to the UK as international students. She suggested they should instead be allowed to sit fresh English tests for new visas.
London-based immigration law firm A Y & J Solicitors has been involved in several cases and offers advice to people caught up in the scandal.
Diana Elena Todirica, head of operations and senior immigration associate at A Y & J, told Personnel Today: “Innocent parties who took the test fairly or did not take the test at all and did not ask someone to take the test on their behalf should challenge any attempt to remove them from the country.”
A Y & J Solicitors have represented several clients caught up in the fiasco. One man from Bangladesh was studying for a master’s degree and made an application for an extension of leave. He had taken the contentious test for a previous successful application and while his extension application was pending immigration enforcement officers raided his uncle’s house, looking for him, solely on the grounds that he had used the test in the previous application.
Innocent parties who took the test fairly or did not take the test at all and did not ask someone to take the test on their behalf should challenge any attempt to remove them from the country” – Diana Elena Todirica, A Y & J Solicitors
A judicial review was sought at which the judge acknowledged that a decision had not been made in his case and ordered the Home Office to make a decision, which it did and refused his application on the grounds that he had used the test in his previous application. He challenged the decision at appeal and was successful because the Home Office could not prove he had used a proxy test-taker. He has subsequently settled in the UK and was naturalised as a British Citizen.
Todirica added: “The Home Office refused applications even when the test had been used successfully in the past. In some cases, we also saw that the Home Office refused the application just for taking the test even if the English certificate was never used in any UK visa application. There were immigration raids to catch the people who had taken the test and had valid leave to remain even if they did not have a pending application.”
In response to the ongoing legal cases, a Home Office spokesperson said:“Courts have consistently found that the evidence we had at the time was sufficient to take action. Where somebody’s test has been identified as having been taken by use of a proxy test taker, they are able to appeal.
“We have made significant improvements to ensure large-scale abuse like this can never happen again. We have fixed the broken student visa system, overhauled English language testing requirements and have revised our caseworker guidance.”
The Home Office has changed procedures since 2019 to ensure that if it became of aware of evidence that migrants had made “false representations”, they would have the opportunity to provide further evidence. It’s new student visa route in 2020 improves on the previous Tier 4 route, it said, making it simpler and more streamlined with more secure English language tests.
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