Namibian narrowly escapes UK’s mass deportation

Around 2 600 foreign students now face deportation, which critics claim will harm Britain’s reputation as a world-renowned centre of learning.

The students were all enrolled at the London Metropolitan University, which was dramatically stripped of its right to teach all non-European Union foreign students after the Border Agency said it was failing to comply with visa rules.

Namibia’s Deputy Minister of Education Dr David Namwandi yesterday confirmed that Namibia had only one student studying at the University but he recently completed his studies and will be returning home anyway.

“This will not affect any Namibian students,” he said.

London Metropolitan University boasts that it is one of the most popular universities in England for international students. It has one of the highest numbers of international students in the UK, from more than 150 countries, including Namibia.

The United Kingdom Borders Agency (UKBA) officials found there was a “serious systemic failure” in admissions after the university failed a number of tests designed to check up on foreign students that were granted visas.

The sampling of the university's foreign students indicated that more than a quarter did not have current permission to be in the country.

The UKBA sampled 250 files from the University which showed 26 out of 101 students did not have valid visas to study in the UK and more than half did not regularly attend their courses.

Some students either had lapsed student visas, the wrong type of visas that don’t allow them to study there, or are studying without any visas.

Also 20 out of 50 students had not been appropriately tested to see whether they spoke good English.

Namwandi stressed that should any Namibian student have been found in the country under the pretext of studying and not abiding the law they should suffer the consequences.

He added that Namibia also experiences foreign nationals flocking to the country coming to ‘study’, but are doing their own business. “We will have to develop a strategy to deal with this.”

Meanwhile, the foreign students will have at least until the end of November to find a new place to study. According to the Sunday Times however, up to 500 foreign students will be told to leave the country immediately because the UKBA believes they are living in the UK illegally.