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No fewer than 1,425 international students who gained admission to universities in the United Kingdom were denied entry at the country’s airports between 2021 and 2023.

A total of 161 Nigerians were affected, as they were removed on arrival at airports across the UK.

According to data exclusively obtained from the UK Home Office through the Freedom of Information Act, India topped the list of affected foreign students with 644, representing 45 per cent of the figure, while Nigeria followed with 11.3 per cent. Ghana is third on the list with 92 (6.46 per cent), while Bangladesh is fourth with 90 (6.32 per cent).

However, the released data, covering October 2021 to October 2023, is limited to students denied entry at the airports. It does not include international students deported by the Home Office for violating the terms of their visas, such as working beyond 20 hours weekly and academic malpractice.

The Home Office did not also specify the reasons for the removal of the foreign students.

But Saturday PUNCH gathered that some of the reasons for such decisions included the inability of students to convince the Border Force officers during checks at the airports, presentation of forged documents, and deficiency in English language usage.

An immigration lawyer based in North London, UK, Dele Olawanle, in a post on X in September 2023, decried the maltreatment of students and called on the UK Government to rein in Border Force officers, whom he said had turned themselves to admission officers.

Olawanle lamented that three students contacted him for help within three hours after facing threats of removal at the airports.

He wrote, “UK border officers have turned themselves into university officials at the point of entry by questioning students entering the UK to start their course on some aspects of the course they are going to start. If they do not answer correctly, they have their visas cancelled, and some are removed from the UK. Sad! I have had three instructions on that in the last 24 hours.

“It is not their job because most of these students were interviewed by the university before being offered a place on the course. Most of these Border Force officers have not even been to university and are not qualified to examine these foreign students on their academic knowledge.

“I can say this as I have had dealings with them for the last 24 years. Their job is to make sure the students obtain entry clearance genuinely. If you are a student coming to start your course, be prepared for immigration officers turning themselves into university examiners.”

A data analyst, Nelly Okechukwu, who claimed he narrowly escaped screening at one of the airports, also shared his experience.

He wrote, “After going through a 16-hour flight, a border officer asked for my transcript, which I presented, and this lady started asking me to tell her about a course I studied in my 200-level in the university. A university I graduated from since 2012.”

Student admissions

A total of 679,970 foreign students were admitted to UK universities for the 2021/2022 academic year, according to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Nigeria had the highest number of foreign students with 44,195 out of the 68,320 African citizens studying in the UK for the 2021/2022 academic year.

HESA data also shows that the number of students from Nigeria rose to 72,355 in the 2022/2023 academic year, with the explanation that the data relates to students enrolled between 1 August 2022 and 31 July 2023.

Nigerian students and their dependents in the UK contributed an estimated £1.9bn to the economy of the country in one year, according to an analysis by SBM Intelligence. The data covered the 2021/2022 academic session.

According to the data, international students contributed £41.9bn to the UK economy in the 2021/22 academic year.

The Universities UK International, which is the umbrella body for universities in the country, said it couldn’t comment on the data of student removals.

The organisation, in response to Saturday PUNCH inquiries, however, noted that immigrants on student visas who were removed at the border were far less than those admitted.

“We are not a government agency or sponsor. So, we don’t hold data on this and therefore can’t comment, but we are sharing the points below on background for context:

“Home Office data from 2021-2024 (year ending March) suggests 1,541,837 study visas were granted to main applicants over the period. Assuming the quoted numbers are correct, then those not admitted to the UK would represent less than 0.01% of all those on study visas. We cannot comment on the reasons for refusal or what happens after that – and it will depend on the specifics of the case.”

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission said it did not get any report from students who were removed at UK airports.

A spokesperson for the commission, Abdulrahman Balogun, said, “No student has ever reported being rejected at the port of entry for no just cause.”

The Director of a foreign education consulting firm, Story Across Globe, Mr Emmanuel Gbadega, said a foreign student or any other immigrant might be rejected at the port of entry if the individual couldn’t explain his or her mission in the country.

Gbadega said anybody who looked suspicious could be rejected and returned to their country by the Border Force.

He said, “They have been doing that for many years. You can be rejected by the Border Force when you look suspicious; probably they find out that you are not coming to study. The students could have been rejected as a result of incompetence; they could have failed an interview.”

Gbadega explained that any foreign student who was removed at the port of entry could seek a refund from his university by notifying the institution of their challenge.

Commenting on the matter, an immigration lawyer, Adeola Oyinlade, tasked Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NIDCOM to be concerned on the removal of Nigerian students at foreign airports.

He also enjoined any student who was denied entry to a foreign country to abide by that decision to avoid being banned for 10 years.

Another immigration lawyer, Dr Yemi Opemuti, said the Border Force did not commit any infraction by removing the affected students, adding that the officers reserved the right to approve or disapprove entry into their country.

According to Opemuti, having a visa does not guarantee entry into a country, adding that customs or immigration officers have the power to invalidate a visa at the port of entry.

“When you are issued a visa from your country of origin, it’s conditional and subject to the approval of customs or immigration agents in your country of destination. A visa can be cancelled based on the response of the migrant to an interview at the entry point.

“They have the right to deny you entry or deport you if you cannot give them convincing answers to their queries,” he added.

The UK Home Affairs and British High Commission in Nigeria did not respond to inquiries made via email sent by our correspondent on August 14.

There has been a sharp decline in the number of Nigerians going to the UK to study as a result of the ban on dependents of student visa, a policy that came into effect in January 2024.

Also, the devaluation of the naira, which resulted in an increased exchange rate, weakened the financial strength of many Nigerians to sponsor themselves or their children to the UK for study.