Shattered dreams of a UK degree and quest for justice

Years of campaigning and legal challenges have finally given some hope to thousands of international students, including Bangladeshis, subjected to historical injustices since 2014 over a wrongful allegation of cheating in English tests. The language test was conducted by a non-profit organisation Educational Testing Services (ETS). A first tier Appeal Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) in its verdict issued on June 18 concluded that ‘the generic evidence is not reliable because a number of students have been identified by ETS as having cheated but who did not in fact cheat.’ A UK-based rights group, Migrant Voice which has been supporting the victims of this injustice, has now signed a partnership with the law firm Bindmans LLP to launch a group compensation scheme against the Home Office. Due to the huge number of the victims, it has been likened by many something similar to Windrush scandal.

In 2014, acting on a BBC investigation that unmasked some colleges in England facilitating foreign students use proxies to cheat and other means of fraud in their Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), the UK Home Office concluded that about 34,000 of them had definitely cheated. They were among 58,458 students who had taken the test between 2011 and 2014. The Home Office decided that only 2,000 had not cheated and a further 22,000 had questionable results. Most of these students were told to leave the UK and were unable to challenge this wholesale stigmatisation. But, some of them were determined to not to accept such collective criminalisation and punishment and started their vigorous campaign on many fronts – lobbying MPs and human rights groups, and mounting legal challenges.         

The latest judgement came in the appeal lodged by Whadiur Rahman, a Business graduate from Sylhet International University who stayed back in London with support from relatives and local community to fight for justice and to clear his name. Wahid was not alone in this fight. A few others, including fellow Bangladeshi Amin Sheikh, Rony Mondol from India, Mohammad Naved from Pakistan with the support from a non-government rights group, Migrant Voice have successfully overturned the Home Office’s decision. Amin Sheikh, another Business graduate who was meant to pursue his Masters at University of London in 2012 won his case last year. But, he told me that it cost him more than 15,000 pounds. 

While victims of this terrible injustice were living in fear of immigration raids and uncertainties, some languishing in detention centres, the Home Office suffered serious embarrassment following a report produced by the government’s National Audit Office (NAO).  The report, published in May 2019, said that cheating had been "large scale", but innocent people may have been deported. The head of the NAO, Sir Amyas Morse, said the Home Office "should have taken an equally vigorous approach to protecting those who did not cheat but who were still caught up in the process, however small a proportion they might be". The NAO said, as of March, 11,000 people who had taken the English tests had left the country after an accusation was made against them.

With the assistance from Migrant Voice, both Wahid and Amin and few other Bangladeshi students took the lead in organising a multinational student campaign against the unfair victimisation and seeking their rights to prove their innocence. Migrant voice helped students in their campaign to get justice by training them on techniques of an effective campaign, how to speak to the press – with some going onto live television to tell their story and contact their MPs.   

Their representations to local MPs resulted in drawing support from all the parties in the House of Commons. Among them, Stephen Timms MP from East Ham, one of the London constituencies having a large number of Bangladeshis, had diligently pursued the issue in parliament asking questions at different occasions and secured a special debate on the subject on July 24, 2019. He argued that it is “implausible” that more than 90% of those who took the Home Office test were involved in cheating. Many of his constituents have been affected by the allegations and he sought a reconsideration system for those wrongly accused.

According to the official record of the parliamentary debate, Hansard, Stephen Timms told the house that a professor of digital forensics at Birmingham City University told the all-party parliamentary group on TOEIC last month (June 2019) that it was “unsafe for anyone to rely upon computer files created by ETS…as a sole means of making a decision”, but those files are the only basis for the cheating allegations. Calling it a grave injustice he noted that appeals were not allowed in the UK. 10 other MPs representing constituencies with large immigrant communities took part in the debate and voiced their support and stressed that it must be brought to an end. The Guardian reported that the public accounts committee, too, in a report concluded that the Home Office’s “flawed” handling and “rush to penalise” the students caused “injustice and hardship for many thousands of international students”. The newspaper also added that the Home Office, however, was still reluctant to revisit the issue.

Apart from renewal or reissuance of visas, whether students can now expect any other forms of compensation such as financial or mental health support from the Home Office still remains unclear. Cameron Ball, Campaigns Organiser at Migrant Voice says, as we understand, there has yet to be any compensation issued by the home office. But, he referred to TOEIC Justice Project launched by the law firm Bindmans following a recent partnership with his organisation Migrant Voice. Bindmans says, “It is a fact that many people were unjustly accused: over 4,000 people have so far been vindicated by challenging the Home Office in the tribunals and Courts. We know that many more will be found innocent in the future.” He added, exoneration is an immense relief, but it is not a remedy for the six years of lost youth, damaged relationships, and mental health damage that the victims of the TOEIC scandal have experienced. Some may also have been detained pending deportation when there was no legal basis for this action. It is not known that how many Bangladeshis have succeeded in clearing their names, but estimates suggest up to one thousand victims are still facing serious difficulties due to not being able to submit their appeals, expiration of visa and not being able to work or access state-run health services.   

While British MPs, jurists and rights activists have been trying to pursue their government to change its course and allow those accused foreign students clear them names and pursue their academic dream, Bangladeshi students allege they felt abandoned by their own government. Wahid recalled his frustrating experience of writing emails and calling officials at the Bangladesh High Commission, but failing to find any sympathetic ears. Another student, on condition of anonymity, told me that one official at the High Commission informed him that the Foreign Ministry in Dhaka refused to own them when the British government sought Bangladesh’s help in removal of those accused students following revocation of their visas. Our request for an official narrative about the subject has not been met by the High Commission.

Any reluctance or refusal on the part of the Bangladesh government to intervene in aid of fee-paying students in distress abroad is a matter of grave concern. Hope it will now make a representation for compensations to be paid to the victims of this gross injustice and assist others who are fighting to clear their names.

(Published in the Daily Star on August 8, 2021.)