No fewer than 1,425 worldwide college students who gained admission to universities within the United Kingdom have been denied entry on the nation’s airports between 2021 and 2023.
A complete of 161 Nigerians have been affected, as they have been eliminated on arrival at airports throughout the UK.
According to knowledge solely obtained from the UK Home Office by means of the Freedom of Information Act, India topped the listing of affected international college students with 644, representing 45 per cent of the determine, whereas Nigeria adopted with 11.3 per cent. Ghana is third on the listing with 92 (6.46 per cent), whereas Bangladesh is fourth with 90 (6.32 per cent).
However, the launched knowledge, masking October 2021 to October 2023, is proscribed to college students denied entry on the airports. It doesn’t embody worldwide college students deported by the Home Office for violating the phrases of their visas, resembling working past 20 hours weekly and educational malpractice.
The Home Office didn’t additionally specify the explanations for the elimination of the international college students.
But Saturday PUNCH gathered that a few of the causes for such choices included the shortcoming of scholars to persuade the Border Force officers throughout checks on the airports, presentation of solid paperwork, and deficiency in English language utilization.
An immigration lawyer based mostly in North London, UK, Dele Olawanle, in a submit on X in September 2023, decried the maltreatment of scholars and referred to as on the UK Government to rein in Border Force officers, whom he stated had turned themselves to admission officers.
Olawanle lamented that three college students contacted him for assist inside three hours after going through threats of elimination on the airports.
He wrote, “UK border officers have turned themselves into college officers on the level of entry by questioning college students getting into the UK to begin their course on some points of the course they’ll begin. If they don’t reply appropriately, they’ve their visas cancelled, and a few are faraway from the UK. Sad! I’ve had three directions on that within the final 24 hours.
“It shouldn’t be their job as a result of most of those college students have been interviewed by the college earlier than being provided a spot on the course. Most of those Border Force officers haven’t even been to college and are usually not certified to look at these international college students on their educational information.
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“I can say this as I have had dealings with them for the last 24 years. Their job is to make sure the students obtain entry clearance genuinely. If you are a student coming to start your course, be prepared for immigration officers turning themselves into university examiners.”
An information analyst, Nelly Okechukwu, who claimed he narrowly escaped screening at one of many airports, additionally shared his expertise.
He wrote, “After going through a 16-hour flight, a border officer asked for my transcript, which I presented, and this lady started asking me to tell her about a course I studied in my 200-level in the university. A university I graduated from since 2012.”
Student admissions
A complete of 679,970 international college students have been admitted to UK universities for the 2021/2022 educational yr, based on knowledge from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Nigeria had the best variety of international college students with 44,195 out of the 68,320 African residents learning within the UK for the 2021/2022 educational yr.
HESA knowledge additionally exhibits that the variety of college students from Nigeria rose to 72,355 within the 2022/2023 educational yr, with the reason that the info pertains to college students enrolled between 1 August 2022 and 31 July 2023.
Nigerian college students and their dependents within the UK contributed an estimated £1.9bn to the economic system of the nation in a single yr, based on an evaluation by SBM Intelligence. The knowledge coated the 2021/2022 educational session.
According to the info, worldwide college students contributed £41.9bn to the UK economic system within the 2021/22 educational yr.
The Universities UK International, which is the umbrella physique for universities within the nation, stated it couldn’t touch upon the info of scholar removals.
The organisation, in response to Saturday PUNCH inquiries, nonetheless, famous that immigrants on scholar visas who have been eliminated on the border have been far lower than these admitted.
“We are usually not a authorities company or sponsor. So, we don’t maintain knowledge on this and due to this fact can’t remark, however we’re sharing the factors beneath on background for context:
“Home Office data from 2021-2024 (year ending March) suggests 1,541,837 study visas were granted to main applicants over the period. Assuming the quoted numbers are correct, then those not admitted to the UK would represent less than 0.01% of all those on study visas. We cannot comment on the reasons for refusal or what happens after that – and it will depend on the specifics of the case.”
The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission stated it didn’t get any report from college students who have been eliminated at UK airports.
A spokesperson for the fee, Abdulrahman Balogun, stated, “No student has ever reported being rejected at the port of entry for no just cause.”
The Director of a international schooling consulting agency, Story Across Globe, Mr Emmanuel Gbadega, stated a international scholar or some other immigrant could be rejected on the port of entry if the person couldn’t clarify his or her mission within the nation.
Gbadega stated anyone who seemed suspicious could possibly be rejected and returned to their nation by the Border Force.
He stated, “They have been doing that for many years. You can be rejected by the Border Force when you look suspicious; probably they find out that you are not coming to study. The students could have been rejected as a result of incompetence; they could have failed an interview.”
Gbadega defined that any international scholar who was eliminated on the port of entry might search a refund from his college by notifying the establishment of their problem.
Commenting on the matter, an immigration lawyer, Adeola Oyinlade, tasked Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NIDCOM to be involved on the elimination of Nigerian college students at international airports.
He additionally enjoined any scholar who was denied entry to a international nation to abide by that call to keep away from being banned for 10 years.
Another immigration lawyer, Dr Yemi Opemuti, stated the Border Force didn’t commit any infraction by eradicating the affected college students, including that the officers reserved the precise to approve or disapprove entry into their nation.
According to Opemuti, having a visa doesn’t assure entry into a rustic, including that customs or immigration officers have the facility to invalidate a visa on the port of entry.
“When you’re issued a visa out of your nation of origin, it’s conditional and topic to the approval of customs or immigration brokers in your nation of vacation spot. A visa may be cancelled based mostly on the response of the migrant to an interview on the entry level.
“They have the right to deny you entry or deport you if you cannot give them convincing answers to their queries,” he added.
The UK Home Affairs and British High Commission in Nigeria didn’t reply to inquiries made through e mail despatched by our correspondent on August 14.
There has been a pointy decline within the variety of Nigerians going to the UK to check because of the ban on dependents of scholar visa, a coverage that got here into impact in January 2024.
Also, the devaluation of the naira, which resulted in an elevated alternate charge, weakened the monetary energy of many Nigerians to sponsor themselves or their youngsters to the UK for examine.