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Immigration: Statement of Changes in Rules

My Lords, I wish to speak briefly in this debate on the changes in the Immigration Rules. Statement HC321, which the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, wishes to disapprove, will introduce changes to the immigration rules that could cause problems for international students coming to higher education institutions in the UK. I declare my interest as chief executive of Universities UK. Although I fully understand the Government’s need to crack down on illegal immigration, I have concerns that international students and staff, as highly skilled migrants whom we want to come to the UK and who contribute to the high quality of our higher education system, could be caught up in the unintended consequences of this measure. The general principle behind the position of the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, is that the changes proposed in HC321 would retrospectively affect people in unfortunate ways, condemn people for errors made by others or for very minor errors and place those who overstayed for brief periods in what could be very difficult positions. HC321 requires that an application for entry to the UK as a student must be refused if the applicant has at some point breached UK immigration law. This could include a period of overstaying in the past. Depending on how the person left the UK previously, this effective ban on his or her re-entry might last for up to 10 years from the time they left. As I understand it, any student application under these proposed rules must be refused if it contains any statement or document that is false, whether or not the individual knew of the falsity and whether or not it is relevant to the application. It is not clear from the rules as formulated whether ““false”” has the meaning of mere inaccuracy, which is one ordinary dictionary meaning, or whether a deliberate fraud must be attempted. Universities UK has recent experience of the Home Office applying the immigration rules in unfortunate ways. Last autumn, we became aware that, from 1 September 2007, Border and Immigration Agency caseworkers were operating a policy of automatically refusing all applications from students who had overstayed. This was in contrast to previous practice and appeared to contradict information we had been given in the summer of 2007 by the BIA that students who overstayed for more than 28 days would be automatically refused, but that applications from students who had overstayed fewer than 28 days would be handled with discretion. There was also no communication by the BIA to Universities UK about a change in that policy. Many students unwittingly became overstayers because of payment problems, when the BIA payment systems rejected valid credit cards. By the time the students had received notice of their rejected payment, they had inadvertently become overstayers. I emphasise that these students were not illegal migrants seeking to disappear into the UK workforce, but people seeking to maintain their regular immigration status through an application and payment of £295 to the BIA. We also know that they are making good progress in their studies, since all applications have to be supported by their institutions. Considerable distress ensued from this rather over-zealous policy implementation, as students were told to leave the country and had their documentation confiscated. Many of these students were nearing the completion of their qualifications and had invested considerable resources in the UK to come here to study. However, it is not all bad news. Following lobbying by Universities UK and the UK Council for International Student Affairs—UKCISA—we were pleased and relieved when, in January 2008, the BIA announced at the joint education taskforce meeting: "““Applications received within 28 days of the expiry of leave will be considered in the normal way ... those within 6 months in exceptional circumstances, but those outside that period, refused””." It is also welcome news that the BIA has agreed to work with UKvisas to draw up guidance for entry clearance officers to prevent entry clearance refusals solely on the grounds that students had overstayed and therefore had been refused leave to remain as students and so had to return to their home countries at considerable interruption to their studies. I understand that this guidance has now been issued to entry clearance posts by UKvisas. In conclusion, I seek two assurances from the Minister. First, does the position about the BIA’s treatment of overstayers, as stated in the JET meeting in January 2008, still hold true, despite the changes we are considering tonight, which were announced on 6 February to this House? Secondly, will the Minister provide for the House a copy of the guidance about overstayers and their treatment that was issued by UKvisas to entry clearance posts around the world? A positive response to these two requests would certainly go some way to reassuring the higher education sector that the Home Office is listening to it on this important matter.