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Desperate State Of Indian Sikh Students In Uk


lsingh
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Something needs to be done, girls are getting badly treated, Sikh organisations in Punjab should warn students there are no jobs in UK fro students.

'Gurdawara President Mr Randawa says he has even heard of some desperate female students turning to prostitution to pay the rent and warned those travelling to the United Kingdom to study aginst it unless they can financially support themselves.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8481493.stm

Jobless Indians 'face ruin' in UK

The UK dream has turned sour for these female students in London

A section of Indians who have come to the United Kingdom on student visas say they are facing financial ruin as they cannot find work. Many have been getting free meals at a Sikh gurdwara in west London, as Poonam Taneja of BBC Asian Network reports.

It is lunchtime in the kitchen of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall and an army of volunteers are preparing "langar", the free meal available to all worshippers.

The kitchen opens at dawn and closes late at night and the numbers of people eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at the temple have soared, according to the gurdwara President Didar Singh Randawa.

Most are students from the Indian state of Punjab.

'Ran out of money'

Harpreet, 19, is one of them. She came to England two months ago but now she is penniless and homeless.

"There were four of us in one room, every girl was paying £150 ($242) a month in rent," she explained. "We lived there for two months and then ran out of money."

Harpreet travelled to Britain on a student visa with her childhood friend Manjit.

In Punjab they paid an agent thousands of dollars to arrange their journey and were assured they would be able to find jobs in the UK to pay for their food and accommodation.

There are no jobs and, if you want to come to study, please make sure you have sufficient funds with you for at least six months

Gurdwara President Didar Singh Randawa

Foreign students are allowed to work 20 hours per week but the pair speak little English and have not found any employment.

Manjit is now desperately worried about the debts they have already incurred.

"It was the money our parents saved for our dowries. It was $11,306 (£7,000)," she said.

"We don't have anywhere to turn and we are not getting work. We can't even give our parents their money back. We've lost everything."

Those coming to the UK as students have to go to college to fulfil the criteria of their visas and, while there will be those in the UK for educational purposes, the main motivation of many spoken to by the BBC Asian Network is to earn money.

And, even those fortunate enough to have found jobs say they are often exploited by their employers.

Warning

"The don't pay us," says Sukhdev Singh, who arrived in Southall five months ago.

"I've worked in factories where the boss is a Sikh like me. He claims to be religious but he conned us out of our money."

The number of students coming to the UK from India and Bangladesh has nearly tripled since last April when a new points-based immigration system was introduced.

A Freedom of Information request showed that between June and August this year the British High Commissions in Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi and Dhaka issued 19,950 student visas.

Immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal believes this has led to an influx of south Asians who want a student visa to find jobs.

Immigration lawyer Harjap Singh says the student influx has caused tension

"The large majority of them are not genuine students, especially from Punjab," he said. "They've come here to work in the guise of student visas."

He is now worried the problem is causing resentment among the local Indian community who settled here in the 1960s.

"There is some tension in our community," Mr Bhangal explained.

"The Indian people who are established here feel that the students are giving them a bad name because the students have been seen begging door-to-door and sleeping in the streets."

Gurdawara President Mr Randawa says he has even heard of some desperate female students turning to prostitution to pay the rent and warned those travelling to the United Kingdom to study aginst it unless they can financially support themselves.

He says the gurdwara is trying to help but there are limits to what they can do. Mr Randawa's advice for Indian's considering travelling the UK to study is simple.

"There are no jobs and, if you want to come to study, please make sure you have sufficient funds with you for at least six months," he said.

Travel agencies in Southall we spoke to say a growing number of students are now returning to Punjab with their dreams of a prosperous new life in England shattered.

Although Ealing Southall Labour MP Virendra Sharma sympathises with the plight of these students, he says many have only themselves to blame.

"If they can't find a job, then they have to go back because they have broken a contract," he said.

The names of the Indians mentioned above have been changed to protect their identity.

You can hear more at 1230 and 1800 GMT on the BBC's Asian Network Reports radio show or via the BBC iPlayer.

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UK suspends Indian student visa applications

India is currently the UK's biggest visa operation in the world

The UK Border Agency has temporarily suspended student visa applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh after a jump in numbers.

In the last three months of last year, there were 13,500 applications from northern India alone, compared with 1,800 in the same period of 2008.

British officials say the system has been overwhelmed and there are concerns that many cases are not genuine.

Unscrupulous offers of visas as a way of settling in the UK are not uncommon.

The British high commissioner in Delhi, Sir Richard Stagg, said abuse of the system would not be allowed to happen.

'Tough action'

While extra checks take place, visa applications have been temporarily suspended - a decision which will be reviewed at the end of February.

Jeremy Oppenheim, of the UK Border Agency, said: "The points-based system gives us the flexibility to act to maintain the integrity of the visa system, whilst processing legitimate applications fairly, thoroughly and as quickly as possible.

"We continually check and monitor all student applications and education providers to ensure that they meet the required standards.

The genuine students who want to come over for the universities they're going to suffer as a result and they won't be able to get here in time for their courses

Harjap Singh Bhangal

"We will take tough action against those who attempt to abuse the system."

The director of the legal advice firm, London Immigration Advice and Appeal Services, Harjap Singh Bhangal, says a temporary suspension will prevent illegal immigration, but it will also adversely affect genuine students.

He told the BBC: "It's going to create a panic and we don't know when this suspension is going to be lifted. I believe it's for one month initially but it could run into several months.

"The problem that we're going to have is that the genuine students who want to come over for the universities they're going to suffer as a result and they won't be able to get here in time for their courses."

India is currently the UK's biggest visa operation in the world.

More than 500,000 Indians visit the UK every year, among them tens of thousands of students.

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  • 11 months later...

This situation in Southall hit its peak around sept 2009 when the home office messed up the new student legislation and accidentally let in everyone, even those who's visa application would have failed due to insufficient funds.

The problem got doubly worse as the recession was hitting hard and no labour jobs were to be found.

Many of our panjabi brothers and sisters found themselves in desperate situations.

But great effort within the Sikh Community. Singh Sabha Southall, SWAT, SAS, United Sikhs who all pushed resources and prevented this situation becoming much much worse.

Houses and rooms were put up by the Sikh Sangat, good community spirit.

Situation has some what improved, but there is still mafia style agents operating in southall. These guys arrange visas, pick up the person from airport, and take passports. Totally entrapping the person. For girls the situation only ends in abuse.

Where we fail is in intelligence gathering. There is a massive communication break-down between our panjabi brothers and british born sikhs. No sharing of information and problems. We both live parallel lives, and just walk past each other as we matha tek.

This needs to change, as we are all one family, we need to understand their problems and work out how we can help.

In terms of Panjab, the real criminals are the agents. typically charging in region of £12000 to get someone to UK. selling them false hopes and dreams.

Its desperate situation, the farmers are being killed off by Delhi, with their pathetic government rates for crop. If panjab was allowed to sell grain on the open international market we would be rich. But instead we feed India on the cheap and get in Debt ourselves. No Microsoft, Intel type companies have invested in Punjab. What hope is their for the youth. If your educated you go abroad. If your rich you go abroad.

The rest just turn to escapism through drink and drugs.

I don't see any short term changes. People will continue to go abroad, even after knowing the reality and risks.

There needs to be a fundamental Change in Panjab, which can only come through revolution. I've thought about this many times, to save Panjab economically, politically, environmentally, socially and dharmically - Khalistan is the only Solution.

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Waheguru Ji, we had to delete about 40 posts full of personal attacks and offtopic comments. Singho/Singhnio, please waheguru ji, can we not stick to the topic without taking everything personally? Please remember a lot of non sikhs visit our forums as well, just imagine the kind of image we are projecting to rest of the world with our petty fights.. there are far bigger issues facing panth right now waheguru jeo, you all know that much more than me, so lets just do ardass in maharajs feet and conserve our energy for more positive actions jeo? Maafi if i sound like im bossing around waheguru ji but please do consider this benti in your feet..

Dhanvaad!

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There needs to be a fundamental Change in Panjab, which can only come through revolution. I've thought about this many times, to save Panjab economically, politically, environmentally, socially and dharmically - Khalistan is the only Solution.

Response changed cos of Benti

Is this the case even for Skilled Professions like Information Technology . Software Engineering.Could some Sikh from the Software Profession Confirm this.

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