New evidence boosts students' campaign for justice

New evidence boosts students' campaign for justice

WEDNESDAY 9 FEBRUARY, 2022

A BBC investigation aired on news bulletins and on Newsnight on 9 February has turned a spotlight back onto one of the most scarring miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

A report on the BBC website says its investigation ”has raised fresh doubts about the evidence used to throw thousands of people out of the UK for allegedly cheating in an English language test”.

It says its findings are based on “whistleblower testimony and official documents obtained by Newsnight that reveal the Home Office has continued to try to remove people based on the claims of the international testing organisation ETS - despite knowing of serious concerns about its conduct and flaws in its data.”

Migrant Voice has been campaigning for years with some of the students who decided to stay in the UK – despite being barred from working, studying, renting accommodation or accessing health services. Many became destitute and suffered severe mental health problems.

Welcoming BBC coverage “of this egregious injustice”, Migrant Voice Director Nazek Ramadan said: “Though some students have managed to stay in the country, trying desperately to fight the issue in the courts, this has proved an insufficient remedy.  It is available only to those very few affected students able to endure living with no rights and legal status for many years while trying to raise tens of thousands of pounds to fight complicated legal battles. 

“Even when the students win, they find that they cannot get their place at university back, nor all the money they spent on fees and lawyers, but they have lost what should have been the best years of their lives”. 

She said eight years is a shamefully long time for the government to continue ignoring its responsibility for creating this injustice and refusing to right the wrong, and added: “It must put an end to this injustice and create a simple, clear process to enable the students to clear their names and get their futures back.

“I hope the programme will reinforce the MyFutureBack campaign and perhaps be a turning point.”

BBC News website article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60264106

BBC Radio 4 - Today programme: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00146b4 (starts at 38:00 - 41:12 | duration: 3 mins 12 secs)

BBC Radio London - The Vanessa Feltz Breakfast Show:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bhv09n (starts at 20:00 - 30:20 | duration: 10 mins 20 secs)

BBC News report (broadcast live at 9.50am on BBC News): https://youtu.be/WmAuivdVgr0 

BBC Newsnight preview (Nomi Raja): https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1491343249902030850 (social media)

https://youtu.be/7T9oUZNmofY (Uploaded to YouTube by MV)

The BBC Newsnight report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m625eLtXqzU