Branded cheats and threatened with deportation, these students are fighting back

Source: CNN, 09/07/2018

London (CNN)Four years ago, thousands of foreigners living in the UK,
many of them students, began receiving letters ordering them to leave
the country or face deportation.
For others, the first sign that their visa had been revoked was a
knock on the door from immigration officials bearing an arrest warrant.
These students, many from India and nearby countries, were accused of
cheating on an English language test known as TOEIC by using someone
else to sit their speaking exam.
It was one of several tests approved by the British government for
non-EU citizens applying for a visa to study or work in the UK. Those
who are granted a visa and move to the UK must retake the test every
two years.
In the first two years after the accusations emerged, the UK Home
Office revoked or refused more than 28,000 visas and deported more
than 4,600 people on the basis of the claims, according to a 2016
report by the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee, a cross-party
group of members of Parliament who scrutinize the department`s policies.
But the Home Office is facing serious allegations of wrongdoing from
MPs and senior judges regarding its handling of the issue.
It is not the only set of accusations currently levelled at the
department, which has been accused of subjecting legal migrants to its
`hostile environment` policy, which was designed to target people in
the country illegally.
Dozens of cases have emerged recently of Afghan interpreters who
served with the British military and members of the so-called Windrush
generation from Commonwealth countries being wrongly deported or
threatened with removal -- and the Home Affairs Committee is now
calling for `root and branch reform` of the Home Office.

Prime Minister Theresa May meeting with Caribbean leaders in April
after her government faced criticism over the treatment of the
Windrush generation.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Prime Minister Theresa May -- who ran
the Home Office from 2010 to 2016 -- will come under renewed pressure
to answer the TOEIC allegations Tuesday, when dozens of students
accused of cheating and now battling those accusations in court attend
the Houses of Parliament for the launch of a report compiled by
London-based charity Migrant Voice.
Those affected were given no chance to retake the test, no access to
the evidence against them for several years and no chance to appeal
the decision from within the UK.
While a number of instances of fraud have been proved, many court
cases have exposed the possibility of errors in the process of
identifying suspected fraudsters and significant flaws in the
government`s arguments, with one judge finding `multiple frailties` in
the evidence presented by the Home Office.
The Home Affairs Committee report was even more critical, concluding
that the situation `raises serious questions about the conduct of the
Home Office.`
In a statement to CNN, a Home Office spokesperson defended the
department`s `robust` response to the initial allegations, which was
described as `measured and proportionate.`
The Home Office spokesperson did not respond to questions about the
strength of evidence presented by the government in court.
`I had dreams. I wanted to be something`
RJ, 28, is one of dozens of foreign students who had their visas
revoked and were thrown out of college but stayed in the UK to fight
the accusation in court.
Many of them are now winning the right to stay in the UK and challenge
the accusations directly.
Fearful that his case would be jeopardized if he revealed his full
name, RJ requested that CNN use only his initials.
He, like all of those still battling, is considered an illegal
immigrant, with no right to study, work, drive, claim benefits, rent a
house or use the National Health Service.
Four years on and living in limbo, RJ feels like he has lost everything.
`I had dreams,` he said, explaining how he arrived from his home in
Jammu and Kashmir, northern India, in 2008. `I wanted to be something
by this age.`
`My father gave his life, he worked hard to provide me a bright future
and this is the future I`m getting,` he said. `I understand if I`ve
done something wrong... But I haven`t done nothing and still, the
trauma, the pain we have to go through.`
`Life has come to a halt,` he added.

RJ came to the UK to study Computer Science. He`s now not allowed to
study or work in the country.
He said he suffers from depression and anxiety as a result of the
ordeal, for which he is taking medication and seeing a therapist.
Asked why he doesn`t go back to India, he spoke of the pride he felt
in coming to study in the UK and the shame of returning home with
nothing except an allegation of fraud and a pile of debt (he said he
has spent more than £50,000, or $66,000, on tuition and legal fees).
`It was known that Britain is the place where you can get a
world-renowned degree,` he said. `And I didn`t achieve nothing. It`s
shameful.`
Shabbir Islam, 32, from Pakistan, also denies cheating. He stayed in
the UK to fight the accusation, despite initially being arrested and
held in detention for more than a month, he said. Like RJ, he finds
himself still in limbo.
`I lost my job, I lost my girlfriend,` Islam said. `You don`t have
money in your pocket, you can`t work, your social life is, sorry to
say, totally f***ed.`
The stress is almost unbearable, he said. `When I came, I was a very
young and handsome guy,` Islam said with a wry smile. `If I go back to
my country, even my mum, she won`t recognize me.`
`A very large number of people have suffered a grave injustice,`
Labour MP Stephen Timms, who has been advocating in Parliament on the
students` behalf since 2014, told CNN. `To leave people so desperately
out of pocket with this stain on their reputation... for me that`s not
acceptable.`

Shabbir Islam says he used to work at the Royal Botanic Gardens in
Kew, West London, and lost his job as a result of the accusations.
`Liable to detention and removal`
The students` problems began in February 2014 when a BC documentary
revealed systematic cheating at two colleges in London on the TOEIC
English language test.
Two months after the documentary aired, the Home Office ended its
contract with Educational Testing Service (ETS), the global education
provider that set the TOEIC exams, and launched a criminal
investigation into the organization.
ETS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In a bid to discover how many students had cheated, ETS used voice
biometrics to analyze tens of thousands of recorded oral tests,
looking for repeated voices.
After further human checks, ETS concluded that there was evidence of
proxy test-taking in nearly 34,000 cases. A further 22,000 tests were
considered `questionable` -- the students who took those tests were
offered the chance to resit, according to the Home Office.
Speaking in perfect English with an East London accent, RJ explains
how he had taken several English language tests in the years prior to
2014, passing each one, and had even sat an extra exam after he heard
about the allegations of fraud at ETS centers, hoping to shore up his
case in the face of any accusations.
But, like thousands of others, he received a letter from the Home
Office informing him of his status as an `illegal entrant/person` and
a second a few days later warning of his imminent removal.

Rabi Aryal, 29, says he arrived in the UK from Nepal in 2009 to study
business management. His visa renewal was refused in 2015, he says. He
has a wife -- who also can`t work -- and a young baby. `Life is very
miserable,` Aryal says.
`Thousands of individuals were denied the most basic of rights`
RJ had no right of appeal -- except from outside the UK.
That`s one of the many aspects of the situation that angers Patrick
Lewis, an immigration lawyer who has represented around eight of those
affected, and won each one of those cases.
When an individual`s ability to speak English is so key to the case,
their presence in court is vital, he argued.
Last June, five Supreme Court judges concluded in a ruling unrelated
to the ETS issue that an out-of-country appeal was not a fair or
effective way for a person to appeal a deportation order.
Referring to that ruling -- which, unlike the ETS cases, related to
two individuals convicted of serious offenses -- three judges
considering the case of a TOEIC student concluded that the student`s
rights would not be satisfied if forced to appeal from outside the UK.
It was a significant ruling, but meaningless for the thousands of
people who have already left the UK or been deported.
`I find it extraordinary that this has occurred in the UK,` said
Lewis. `It seems to go against everything that we take for granted --
that there is due process, that a person can put forward evidence to
rebut serious allegations. Thousands of individuals were denied that
most basic of rights.`
`It has led to incredible hardship,` he added. `These are individuals
of good character who were investing in their future and had
everything taken away.`

Wahidur Rahman says he came to the UK in 2009. `Everything was very
beautiful, milk and honey,` he said. `I had a part-time job, going to
university.` Now he says he has no permanent place to live and is
living on the charity of friends and family.
Many of those who stayed in the UK say they were refused access to the
recording, the critical piece of evidence against them. The Home
Affairs Committee, highly critical of the lack of evidence presented
by ETS or the Home Office in court, described the refusal of ETS to
provide the recordings as `mildly astonishing.`
Wahidur Rahman, 28, from Bangladesh, described how he asked both ETS
and the Home Office for the recording in the months after the
allegation but each claimed it was the other`s responsibility.
`Can you see how unfair it is?` Rahman said. `You accuse me of
something but you can`t show me the evidence.`
`Access to the voice samples was not denied to anyone,` a Home Office
spokesperson said in a statement to CNN, adding that individuals were
told to request the recording from ETS.
According to Lewis and to court records, ETS has now begun releasing
the recordings when asked -- but again, that comes too late for many.
`I`m just living in a cage`
RJ is desperate to clear his name before returning home to India. He
said he would rather `jump out of the plane` than go home with the
accusation intact. `It`s pride we all live for,` he added.
It`s been more than four years since he saw his family, since he won`t
be allowed to return to the UK with his current status.
But the thought of returning home saddens him too. He said he has lost
touch with his friends, most of whom are already married with
children; the gulf feels too big, he explained.
His relationship with his family has been badly affected too. `When I
call my father, the first 10 seconds are normal, then it`s all
shouting,` RJ said.
The situation is becoming unbearable, he said: `I`m just living in a
cage.`