On 23 April, The Guardian published a story about the international students wrongly accused of cheating on an English test by the Home Office in 2014. Amelia Gentleman, one of the journalists who exposed the Windrush scandal, spoke to several students, as well as to Migrant Voice Director, Nazek Ramadan and Stephen Timms MP.
"The allegation of cheating in the UK makes applying to study elsewhere extremely difficult," wrote Amelia. "Most chose to study in the UK because of Britain’s international reputation as a country with good universities and a reliable justice system. Because the Toeic issue has never become headline news, many say their families at home have begun to believe they must have cheated, convinced the UK government could not make such an error."
"It's an outrage that thousands of students are still suffering, five years after the first wrongful allegations," said Nazek. "In this country, you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty – but for these students, that principle was thrown out of the window."
The story was featured in The Guardian's Wednesday morning briefing. The article was also published in the print edition of The Guardian on Wednesday 24 April, alongside an article about one of the affected students, Waqas Jawaid.
Read the full article here. And read the article about Waqas here.