UK student visas: Allow Pakistan to investigate
April 17 2009 by Ranjan Chakraborty
In an attempt to weed out suspicious student visa applications UK immigration should refer any applications, that it deems to be unscrupulous, to the Pakistan authorities, says Wajid Hasan, Pakistan’s High Commissioner.
Following the arrest of a group of suspected terrorists who were studying in the UK on student visas from Pakistan, there have been growing concerns about the ease with which foreigners can obtain student visas.
Speaking to CNN, Hasan stated, “if they [the British authorities] had referred these cases to us, we would have made inquiries, and then told them whether to issue them visas or not." He added, "…in case there are doubts, they should always be referred to our home ministry...so that we could also be made responsible for it."
The High Commissioner suggests that involving Pakistani authorities and allowing them to do their own investigations into suspect UK visas would help uncover potential evidence against the suspected terrorists. He says Pakistani authorities are in the dark on the situation, "I don't know, because we have not been provided any information as far as what they have found on them to make suspicions they were planning to commit some sort of mischief there.”
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