Travel: UK suspends student visas from India, Nepal, Bangladesh

The suspension will remain in place for at least one month while a backlog of applications is processed - but that period will be extended if necessary. During that time, applications will become subject to much greater scrutiny.

The problem appears to originate in the UK's adoption of a points-based system which grants visas to anyone who can prove they have taken a place at a UK educational establishment.

There are several hundred universities and recognised places of higher education but they are not, it appears, what is fuelling a boom which has seen applications - and grants - soar by more than six and a half times in the past year.

The Borders Agency has noticed a problem that has existed for years, but has usually been used by Eastern Europeans and Africans in relatively small numbers: small tuition businesses that take on foreign students are commonplace, particularly language schools.

The plan is simple: the school accepts a payment and issues a certificate of enrolment. That has been sufficient to secure a UK visa. But as the points system came in, many people who would have qualified under the previous regime without using a student visa have been excluded.

The result is an increase in applications - from under 1,000 in Q4 2008 to 1,800 in Q4 2009 and then a startling rise to 13,500 in Q4 2009. In a global recession, such an increase is highly unlikely to be the result of genuine demand for education, the Agency has concluded.

It is easy to set up a private school or college in the UK provided it does not aim to teach minors; and they are not the target of the scam.

The private schools and colleges offer courses in a variety of subjects but, especially in London, language schools are particularly popular - after all, where better to learn English than in London.

The irony is that English is so widely spoken in e.g. Delhi, which falls within the area covered by the suspension, that local schools can do a perfectly good job for those that genuinely want to learn the language.

There is no requirement for the qualifications issued by such schools and colleges to meet any government set standard, except for degree. Anyone can issue a "diploma."

The scheme is a thinly veiled immigration scam - the less vile end of a trade that, at the other end, encompasses illegal people trafficking.

In the UK, most "Indian" restaurants are in fact Bangladeshi. These have, traditionally, been the gateway for Bangladeshis wanting to enter the UK. But as the recession has hit, and the scoring system developed, there is little or no need for unskilled Bangladeshi workers.

The "chef" scam has been identified elsewhere: in Malaysia, a run of applications for UK visas was made by people seeking employment and claiming culinary expertise, even going so far as to secure, from a real restaurant, a false reference. Unfortunately, the immigration officer was a proficient cook and he was able to weed out the fakes with a couple of questions. Again, with the points system, this avenue has been largely closed off.

The Times of India has reported that, in line with the massive increase in student visa applications, has been an upsurge of adverts by those who have obtained student visas to enter into a civil (not religious) marriage which would then allow the spouse, male or female, to enter the UK with the "student." In one case it reports a girl advertised for a boy to enter into such an arrangement in return for paying all the expenses of both travel and the accommodation. The newspaper says that, until recently, such adverts appeared only in relation to Australia which has recently clamped down on dubious educational businesses and begun making more stringent checks on student visa applications.

Improved checking prior to allowing access to the student visa scheme has been rendered essential by a series of decisions by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal which has consistently ruled that where a person breaks his visa conditions, to deport him would be a breach of his human rights. The Government argues that it's a question of a contract willingly entered into and that deportation is an agreed penalty for breaching conditions, a view the AIT is unwilling to accept.