CAMPAIGNERS and students whose lives were ruined after they were accused of cheating in an English test are demanding that ministers to “put an end to this injustice,” after a damning new investigation. 

More than 2,500 international students were deported and at least 7,200 more forced to leave Britain after being accused of cheating in an English language exam that they were required to sit as part of their visa application process. 

Many say that they were wrongly accused and have been fighting to clear their names after years of hardship. 

A BBC investigation has now disclosed that the Home Office is still trying to remove people based on claims of international testing organisation ETS, despite being aware of serious concerns about its conduct and flaws in its data. 

The Home Office crackdown came after reports in 2014 of organised cheating at two centres offering the exam for visa extensions. 

It ordered ETS to assess whether the 58,459 tests taken between 2011 and 2014 were valid. The firm identified 97 per cent of its tests of English for international communications (Toeic) as “suspicious.”

The Home Office revoked the visas of all those accused of cheating. Since then, more than 3,000 people who said that they were wrongly accused have won their appeals.

One of the students affected, Shana Sheikh, 33, said that since her visa application was rejected in 2014, she has been unable to work or study. 

“This has impacted me very badly on my mental and physical health [so] that I can’t plan a baby,” she told the Morning Star. “I have become an anxiety patient. I’m losing my hair, I’m gaining weight.

“My friends and cousins are getting on with their careers, babies. I am still here struggling to prove my innocence. I’m not achieving anything.”

Ms Sheikh came to Britain from India in her early twenties to study for a masters in business and dreamed for going on to do a PhD in this country. She said the BBC investigation had given her hope.

After she was accused of cheating on the Toeic test, Ms Sheikh sent the Home Office other qualifications to prove her English level, but these have been ignored, she said. 

“English is not a new language for me. I’ve been studying it since I was a child. Why would I use a proxy or cheat? I’m trying to convince them but no, they are just relying on the selective evidence. 

“It’s been literally eight years since I’m fighting. It’s a huge span of time I’m wasting.”

Migrant Voice director Nazek Ramadan, who has been working with the victims to clear their names, said: “Eight years is a shamefully long time for the government to continue ignoring its responsibility for creating and refusing to right this wrong, which affected 56,000 students.
 
“We call on them to act now to put an end to this injustice and give the students their future back.”