"We now issue 370,000 student visas a year - almost the entire population of Bristol or Manchester - yet hardly any of the applicants ever see hide nor hair of an Immigration Officer."
An update on this story. "Terror plot raises questions over student visas," by Martin Evans for the Telegraph, December 27:
The latest airline bomb plot by a terrorist with British connections raises serious questions about the UK's controversial student visa system.
Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who comes from a wealthy family in Nigeria, was already showing signs of extremist views when he was granted a visa to study mechanical engineering at University College London in 2005.
After completing his studies in 2008 he travelled to the Middle East before applying to return to the UK in May for another six month course.
However, his request was refused by officials from the UK Borders Agency as he was attempting to enrol on a course being offered by an institution on the Government's list of bogus colleges.
Despite the fact his entry was barred, questions still remain over the system which has seen more than one and a half million visas granted to overseas students during the last eight years.
Earlier this year a report by the Home Affairs Select Committee criticised the Government for failing to deal adequately with the explosion in bogus colleges springing up across the UK.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee said: "The government must restrict the term college to prevent any premises above a fish and chip shop from being able to claim it is a reputed educational institution."
It is feared tens of thousands of foreign nationals have gained entry to Britain illegally under the scheme, with many avoiding detection and never leaving.
In March tighter restrictions were introduced cutting the number of institutions allowed to recruit students from outside the UK.
But critics believe the new points based register has done little to close the system's gaping loopholes.
Around 3,000 educational institutions across the UK have been granted licenses under the points based system but there are only 62 officials employed to vet the colleges and their 13,500 employees. [...]
MPs have welcomed efforts to improve the system, but in their report expressed concern that inspectors were giving notice to colleges before visits.
Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch has also been deeply critical of the system which he said provided a "gaping hole" in our immigration system.
He said: "We now issue 370,000 student visas a year - almost the entire population of Bristol or Manchester - yet hardly any of the applicants ever see hide nor hair of an Immigration Officer."
There is also widespread concern that many legitimate universities and colleges are providing fertile recruiting grounds for radical Islamic preachers and banned groups.
Radicalisation among students has been a problem since the 1990s, with many of those involved in terror plots being highly educated graduates.
Three of the July 7 bombers attended university as did most of the gang which planned a fertiliser bomb attack on the Bluewater shopping centre and the Ministry of Sound nightclub.
Ahmed Omar Sheikh, convicted of the kidnap and murder of the journalist Daniel Pearl, was a former student at London School of Economics, and Waseem Mughal, convicted of running a website for al-Qaeda in Iraq, was a former biochemistry student at Leicester University.
Mughal was a member of the university Islamic society, and the fertiliser bomber Jawad Akbar attended Islamic society meetings at Brunel University, while Yassin Nassari, convicted of smuggling plans for a Qassam rocket into Britain, was president of the University of Westminster's Islamic society at its Harrow campus in Northwest London. [...]
A recent study by the Centre for Social Cohesion found that a third of Muslim university students believed killing in the name of religion could be justified.
The disturbing findings of the survey also found a large proportion were in favour of the introduction of Sharia law in the UK.
Following publication of the report, its co-author Hannah Stuart said: "Students in higher education are the future leaders of their communities yet significant numbers of them appear to hold beliefs which contravene liberal, democratic values.
"In addition there are signs of growing religious segregation on campus. These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said that there is no extremism in British universities."
However, his request was refused by officials from the UK Borders Agency as he was attempting to enrol on a course being offered by an institution on the Government's list of bogus colleges.
...................
Remember when "bogus colleges" existed merely so "graduates" could claim fake degrees and get employment above their skill levels, or just so they could enter the host country and find work?
Seems positively innocent compared to using a "bogus college" as a front for Jihad terrorism.
The Bogus colleges scams and student visa fiascos are a disaster, that's true - but on this occasion, things must be sligthly more embarrassing for Schipol Security, I would've thought.
And he was cleared for entry into the US too - otherwise it's doubtful he'd have been on the flight.
Before everyone starts wading into the Brits, I rather think that this one has even more 'egg-on-faces' elsewhere.
BREAKING FOX NEWS NOW:
The same Northwest/Delta flight#253 has had another incident occur from Amsterdam to Detroit this morning
No details yet-- there is a Nigerian man in custody
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581232,00.html
"Radicalisation among students has been a problem since the 1990s, with many of those involved in terror plots being highly educated graduates". Can we throw out the door the premise that the reason Muslim's become violent jihadest are because they are poor, uneducated and repressed by the west?
All I know about Britain is that the Economist magazine, which I used to read, is the most rabidly ant-Israel publication. I used to read that thing and think that the British intellegensia must be incredibly anti-Semitic. Every single article in it takes the Islamic point of view.
It's hard to believe that British anti-Semitism has nothing to do with their indulgent attitude towards these Islamic scum that are flooding their country. It's as if these fools really think that the Jews are the root cause of every ill on earth, and this sick belief has somehow anesthetized them to the evil of Islam, to the point where their own country is being destroyed.
BREAKING FOX NEWS;
Additional information coming in on the 2nd flight #253 occurring 48 hrs. after the Christmas day one.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581232,00.html
The UK is not alone in this, they just get more middle easterner's using that system due to their proximity to the Middle East.
In the USA there is a perverse way the system is gamed to the detriment of US citizens (primarily entry level jobs) and US businesses that play by the rules.
Formula:
1. Get student Visa (you can use it for even phony English language errr. academies)
2. Work under the counter (as Student Visa holders cannot legally work in the US for the first year)
3. Get an exception to student visa to get job for 3 years or so.
4. Once out of school get Skilled Worker Exception Visa and apply for Green Card
5. This gives you about 10 years to get your immigration status wait cleared and citizenship is yours.
Here is the perverse end of it:
Since you are a foreign student or worker, it is assumed you will go back to country of origin. Thus, FICA (social security and Medicare) state employment and disability taxes are not paid by worker or employer. Thus the foreign worker is about 10% cheaper to hire than a citizen, and the foreign worker can work for less since he doesn't have the FICA haircut withheld.
Moreover, the immigrants from China and the Far East want to get out so bad, that they might pay an employer that can set up the student-skilled worker-green card-citizenship path..for the process. A fee that is likely higher than the pay for the ensuing years..essentially indentured servants (slave labor) further undermining the local businesses that play by the rules.
It is legal and is happening. I have observed the student visa, skilled worker-green card path-system in action in computer manufacturing and sales operations. Good jobs that could go to entry level citizens are being filled by foreigners since the system makes the citizen more costly to employ. Firms using this formula, essentially foreign controlled corporations (FCC's), use the formula, especially where wages are a significant cost, to out-compete other local businesses (primarily US small businesses and corporations).
Next time you see it, realize that these policies and laws create a system that is detrimental to citizens and our future economic well being.
Its politics, They (Economist magazine) will support any issue that is the opposite of what the right supports. They will destroy their country so as not to champion the same cause of the Conservative Party, just to maintain power. If the Conservative Party said the sky was blue, the left would say no, its gray. Progresive thinking is all about destroying Traditional Values, then rebuilding it to their Anti-Judeo/Christian Left Wing Socialist Ideology. You need to wake up and understand::: THEY WANT TO DESTROY THEIR COUNTRY.
MSNBC is now reporting that this second incident of a Nigerian "disrupting" a flight is because he had "stomach problems" and refused to come out of the bathroom.
??
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34602186/ns/us_news-security/
Just be glad they don't call the system the mastercard system.
We would be so screwed.
370,000 is a sizeable fighting force...especially if you don't know where they are...
Somewhat OT, but British:
There may or may not be a glimmer of hope for Britain described here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1238213/This-England-On-trail-English-Defence-League.html
This is England: On the trail of the English Defence League | Mail Online
What is clear is that the author of the piece is busily accusing anybody associated with the popular defense of English culture and the British nation of being a "violent football hooligan".
It is comically obvious that there is nothing (or nearly nothing) in the article to connect anybody described with football as such. Beyond which, the people who riot after football games are just random people -- young and dumb perhaps, but still random -- who happen to like football and went to a game. They are NOT members of some sort of "football hooligan" organization.
But the "journalist's" intention is to insult and demean, not report.
Most of the rest of the article is dedicated to suggesting that everybody interested in the defense of Britain is a Nazi or at least a racist. And while it may well be the case that there are some such in the mix, it is obvious even from the article itself that such characters are at the periphery of what is going on, and do NOT represent the core thinking or feeling.
But the "journalist's" clear intention is to insult and demean, not report.
But in those insults is an implicit bit of what may be very good news. It may be the perception of England's elite that a popular resistance to the islamization of Britain is growing so popular that it must be discredited before it develops any further.
One key quote I noticed was "Our leaders in this country no longer represent us."
Certainly that much is true.
Merry Christmas and Good Luck to Britain.
"What am I studying? Jihad, of course."
New Zealand passengers intending to fly to or through the USA have now been advised:
1 They must check in even earlier than before
2 They will be isolated by screens from interacting with passengers for other destinations
3 They will undergo a rigorous second set of security checks, which will include more rigorous luggage searches, the use of sniffer dogs and possibly body searches
4 They must remain seated for the final hour of flight
5 They will not have access to carry-on baggage nor have any items in their laps in this period
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10617587&pnum=0
Elsewhere it has been mooted that only one item of carry-on will be allowed. It is unclear if this will bar laptops, handbags, essential baby items, and suit bags as for first and business class.
If widely enforced elsewhere, the economic impact of all this on airlines based in or flying through the USA can only be guessed at, and on the economy as a whole, as passengers with a choice will very likely now avoid the USA.
The laxity of US and UK governments in allowing this state of affairs to develop is not that far behind the umma's inability and unwillingness to address, much less dump, all the inherently violent and terror-genic components of the Koran and the Sunna.
Directly back on topic in relation to Marisol's post, I understand that, in stark contrast, Swiss-based organisations are obliged by their government to give precise details of intended meetings (requiring the travel and attendance of non-Swiss) so that very tight time-limited visas can be given to alien nationals travelling to Switzerland for meetings.
Twenty-four months for a "religious ceremony"? The Swiss would allow little more than 24 hours.
I guess in that sense countries get the terror they allow.
Well said, jewdog. It is almost as if the UK has "submitted" to the Islamization of their country, without so much as a whimper. Do they hate themselves this much? Is it repressed anglo guilt? Did they not see this coming? What gives?!
Well said, jewdog. It is almost as if the UK has "submitted" to the Islamization of their country, without so much as a whimper. Do they hate themselves this much? Is it repressed anglo guilt? Did they not see this coming? What gives?!
The UK is responsible for its greed towards anything smelling to an "education" income.How many millions do come into the british land throguh all the educational business? Just as France and Germany probaly do get as much money through their investing in the wrong countries.
It's all for the money,and money doesnt talk, it swears.
I agree with you, jewdog, about the Economist. Years ago when I first began reading it I was struck by its sophistication but the more I read it the more I detected an anti-Israel AND anti-American bias. But there was something else. It increasingly struck me as possessed of a subtle smugness which became more annoying the more I read it and so finally I just gave up on it. After all, there's only so much attitude you can take and then you have to say the hell with it.
I have a huge picture in my office at work of Winston Churchill; it's a repro of an old WWII propaganda poster with the caption: "Let us go forward together". Churchill is standing in front of various armaments on the move. In my several years on the planet, I have yet to hear of another human being measuring up to Churchill.
I hope the Britain he represents isn't gone forever, but I'm very worried.
Joeblough wrote:
There may or may not be a glimmer of hope for Britain described here
......................
Here is the page for the English Defense League:
http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/Who-are-the-edl-english-defence-league.html
They are very new, just six months old today. They claim they are not in any way fascist, racist, or violent, although they have been labeled as such by the press and by he pro-Jihadists.
I have only read a few things about them, but am so far guardedly positive. If they are true defenders of free, democratic Britain against Jihad and the encroach of Shari'ah, then their presence will be most welcome.
Good post jewdog! I've noticed this too, it's sad and depressing. Newspapers like 'The Guardian' have so many Muslims working in it, that they literally drove any Jewish or in fact, pro-west person away.
The British government, with its PC, have became the defender of anti-smites muslim bullies, since there are less riots and violence if they just offend the Jewish people.
The ban of Israeli PM members from entering the UK is shocking example of the hand of islamic dictatorships, suppressing a liberal western society, through unchallenged propaganda.
@joeblough
The EDL is not the answer. You can't fight a religious-political ideology like islam with street fights. This plays straight to the hand of stealth jihadists, who will portray muslims as victims, (just like that article). Stealth jihadists are a far greater danger.
I think we always have to distinguish between the people and the politicians of a country. With a few praiseworthy exceptions such as Geert Wilders and Oskar Freysinger nearly all European politicians are dhimmis nowadays. But the people in Europe are different, they want to get rid of Islamic supremacism and terrorism. The British people are no exception. Think of the rallies organised by SIOE.
The Swiss vote against minarets started a new era in Europe. It was a clarion call for the rest of Europe. The clock can't be turned back. The two countries which are most affected are of course neighbouring France and Germany but Great Britain got her share as well.
In my opinion Geert Wilders can be compared to Winston Churchill and hopefully Britain will get a new Winston Curchill in the near future, as well.
jewdog, your comment (and I guess the end-of-the-year reflective mood) made me think why our immune system (incl media) is attacking itself so efficiently and with such self hatred.
The thesis I came up with is that we are dealing with two types of mind sets:
The Western mindset that indefinitely collects historic guilt to the point of destruction
(eg.: crusades, slavery, colonialism, holocaust, atomic bomb on japan, third world poverty, Christianity, and now the new fashion guilt trip: historic guilt for the industrial revolution and accumulated CO2 emission).
The Islamic ("Teflon") mindset (and the Communist/Socialist Mindset for that ) that has no notion of historic responsibility or guilt.
(eg: Constantinople - great move - historic right, slavery - nothing wrong here, millennium+ of jihad, conquests, and genocide - a sacred Islamic right, etc).
It would be interesting if RS and HF explored this issue in more depth than I would be capable of.
May I take the opportunity to agree with you again, jewdog. I have long contended (and have for many years told students I have taught) that the single most impressive human being to walk the earth over the past hundred years was Winston Churchill. He is England's greatest Prime Minister, even more so than Walpole, the Pitts, Peel, Disraeli, Gladstone or Thatcher. He saved his nation, he wrote over fifty books, most all of them outstanding, won the Nobel Prize for Literature (when it still meant something) and was as tough an ass guy as one could find anywhere. What a contrast he is to the poor excuses for leadership we now have in the West, especially the guy presently occupying the Oval Office. How bitterly fitting that he passed away (1965) at just about the time all the idioices of the modern era were beginning to manifest themselves, not the least of which has been a mindless immigration policy which, coupled with a savage disregard, even scorn, of British and Western achievement, has led to the mess Britain and the West in general are now facing.
And Sir Winston knew Islam. Oh yes, he knew it well, and it is so sad to see the Britain he saved now committing national suicide. Like you, I hope the Britain of Churchill isn't gone forever but it's looking bleaker and bleaker with each passing year.
Ted:
I'm not really sure how the subject of street fights came into this.
I certainly didn't raise the subject. And if memory serves street fights weren't even the main focus of the article in the Mail that I cited.
Perhaps you are thinking in terms of of the propaganda promoted by the British elites, and the Euro-elite in general for that matter, that anybody who wants to defend his native culture from islamization is a "violent football hooligan", or something similar.
I don't buy it.
To your specific point that:
Who ever proposed that you can?
=================
Ultimately, however, the thing that will decide the fate of Britain, is who the authorities are MORE AFRAID OF.
If the authorities are more afraid of the mohammedans, the mohammedans will win and Britain will be ruled by sharia and the mohammedan theological rules.
If the authorities are more afraid of the British people, then the British will win and the wave of mohammedan dominance will be reversed.
You have to bear in mind that the authorities are ONLY interested in their own power, and are driven primarily by power-lust and fear.
Whoever the authorities fear more calls the shots.
And in this sense, a large, virile, physically powerful crowd of native Christian Britons standing up for British culture can only be a good thing.
=================
All that said, I have to respectfully protest that your post puts me in mind of people who say "war isn't the answer" -- to which I normally reply, that depends on what the question is.
While you cannot, indeed, fight a religious-political ideology with street fights, you can fight street thugs with street fights. In fact, sometimes that is the only way to fight street thugs.
The mohammedans have created a shocking amount of violence in the normally placid streets of Europe, and the authorities appear to be growing more passive and ineffective with every passing day with respect to that problem.
There are only three possible outcomes that can develop from mohammedan street violence at this point:
-- Either the authorities start doing their job, which requires a significant degree of violence on their part, or
-- Mohammedan gangs come to rule Europe's streets, and rape, rob and assault as the spirit moves them, or
-- Europe's civilians take the law into their own hands and simply beat the villains into submission.
There aren't any other available options on the horizon. There is NO evidence whatsoever to suggest that the mohammedans themselves are apt to simply calm down and start acting neighborly toward their "infidel" neighbors. There's just no visible precedent anywhere in the countries where there is a mohammedan majority or even a large (greater than 10%) mohammedan minority.
===============
In the end, we owe it to our natural allies in the UK to give them the benefit of the doubt wherever possible.
One problem with the assessment regarding the EDL and the BNP, is that members of the BNP tend to also be members of the EDL.
The last time I saw the EDL on the news, was from PressTV youtube channel and they came across like another bunch of idiots.
English Defence League protestors on Islam part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2PKwwn9JCU
The video features one of their supporters being hostile asking what the presstv logo means.
too all of those who are ex-economist readers, let me recommend two magazines, The Spectator and Standpoint, both excellent in my view and I believe pro Israel and the Jewish people.
JEWDOG and RAVEN have stole my thunder. As for western guilt, why doesn't anybody seem to know anymore that Africans were not the only slaves? The British Empire enslaved Irish and Scottish people for centuries. The first slaves brought to the new world were indentured servants.
As for the next Churchill, he may very well have to come from the ranks of the soccer hooligans. God save the Queen and the rest of us .