TWENTY people were arrested yesterday in dawn raids aimed at ending a student visa scam allowing more than 1,000 people to enter the country.
About 120 police officers went to 12 addresses in London and Essex, including two colleges suspected of being bogus educational establishments.
Twelve men and eight women were arrested on suspicion of committing immigration offences and money laundering.
Most of the immigrants targeted were South African and the alleged fraud involved producing fake documents claiming that people were studying at colleges in Tooting, South London, so that they could obtain student visas.
They paid several hundred pounds, allowing them to get a student visa for between six months and three years.
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The suspects were taken to various police stations in London for questioning by detectives. The raids took place under Operation Maxim, a Metropolitan Police initiative to tackle organised immigration crime.
Yesterday’s raids were timed to coincide with action by South African police in Durban who went to at least one address in the city.
The raids occurred 24 hours before publiction today of a National Audit Office report which is critical of the Government’s visa entry controls.
At the same time as the NAO report is released, the Home Office will publish an internal report into allegations of lax visa entry controls which allowed Bulgarians and Romanians to enter Britain. The row led to the resignation of Beverley Hughes, the Immigration Minister, this year.
Yesterday’s operation, codenamed Taming, involved Metropolitan Police officers and immigration staff raiding addresses in Peckham, Upper Norwood, Anerley, Tooting and Mitcham, in South London. Premises in Central London, Canning Town, in East London, and Gants Hill and Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex were also targeted.
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Among those raided were two premises in Tooting which purported to be colleges.
The suspects have been arrested in connection with allegations of conspiracy to facilitate illegal entry and right to remain in the UK and money laundering.
Among those arrested was a Zimbabwean-born naturalised British citizen in his 40s.
Detective Chief Inspector Steven Kupis, who led the operation, said: “This was the largest preplanned operation that Maxim’s done since it started in April last year.” Asked about the scale of the scam, Mr Kupis said it was one of the largest known to have been operating in the capital.
He said: “The finance we believe has been generated from this — it would be hard to think of anything that has been bigger to my recent knowledge.” Mr Kupis said that those who had been brought to the UK under the scam were mainly South African, both black and white.
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He added that most had come to the UK in search of a better life but that their status in this country was now under threat. “They stand to be returned to their country of origin if they are here illegally,” he said. “It is a matter for the Immigration Service and we are progressing with that.
“These people are victims. They have given up money, sometimes unknowingly, to these people purporting to be agents. They are losing not only their money but their right to be in this country.”
The network behind the suspected racket has been under investigation for more than a year, but police believe that it may have been operating for several years. The suspected ringleaders are thought to have made at least £1 million from the racket.
The raids come after growing concern in the Home Office that UK immigration laws are being undermined by “bogus” colleges which claim that they offer courses to foreigners but in fact offer a means of entering the UK to foreigners. A total of 369,000 student visas were issued in 2002.