Every Day there are hundreds of students coming to the UK from India hoping to make their future bright by the attract caption ‘earn while learn’. We would like to show you the clear picture as what happens here in the UK.
Agents:
Agents play a major role in bringing the young students to the UK. Most of the students are using agents in India and most of the agents claim to be as ‘authorized by government’. They promise a very bright future waiting in London and other cities in the UK. The most of the agents charge a fee for bringing the students to the UK. Sometime if the students do not have the money in the bank as a supporting document for the visa, the agents use ‘their financiers’ who charge a fixed fee from Rs.250 per day per 1 Lakh rupee. The visa processes takes normally 4 weeks time, therefore the ‘financier’ earns an interest of upto Rs50,000 for 7 lakhs rupees. The student pays at almost 4 to 5 laks to get to the UK just to study in a college thinking that they are going to make millions. But the fact is not the case….
Stay:
There are thousands of students in Eastham alone, a place in east London also called as ‘little-South India’ by the Indian community. Most of them stay in a house where upto 12-15 of them stay in a single house, sometimes they cook themselves and share the cost/rent/etc., sometimes they goto the restaurants where the food cost is relatively cheaper than other parts of the city and moreover there are many South Indian restaurants here.
Free meal:
Most of the students goto the places like Sri Mahalakshmi Temple or London Sri Murugan Temple or The Gurudvar situated nearby Eastham area where free meals being offered to everyone without any age/religion/cast. Sometimes you can find MBBS doctors from India visiting regularly to these temples for meals.
Job:
Recently the UK government has strict rules and policies, whereby a student can work only upto 10hours per week, this was 20 hours previously. A restaurant owner informs us that if there is an opening in a restaurant for a waiter then he receives a minimum of 300 CV’s per job. Its all filled with too many students and illegal immigrants. The UK government asks the business owners to give jobs to the locals than from other foreign countries. Please note that Europeans are also considered as locals so the probability of getting a job is not an easy one. Some companies illegally recruit few students for a lesser salary prescribed by the government. In the UK the legal minimum wages at present is for aged 21 and above is £5.93 but you can find students who are willing to work even for £2.50 and business owners are benefiting from this.
Study:
Most of the colleges are not meant for studies, they are there just to get the students to the country to make money. Though the UK Border Agency is taking all its efforts to make sure that the colleges are genuine and real, everyday there are new colleges being opened all over the UK and few colleges being closed. Of course there are very good colleges still operating and some of world’s best universities are also in the UK only.
Kumanan:
Kumanan Ganapathy 32 was born in Trichy, India, is a college student came to UK to study diploma in English, though he has already holding a degree his agent asked him to hide his original qualifications so that he can get his visa without any problems. He was here in the UK from end of December 2010. He was studying and at the same time searching for any jobs, but unfortunately everywhere he went there were huge queues and there is no opportunity for him. Because the UK student visas allows only 10hours most companies would not give an offer for any students with 10hours legally, on Kumanan’s case also this was no different.
At the same time UK Boarder Agency Recently did a ride on his college this week and subsequently they have asked the college to close down and eventually the college is now been closed. As pressure builds up day by day he could not handle the situation therefore he complained chest pain on Sunday early morning and collapsed in the Newham University Hospital, treatment did not work and the 7 doctor team worked for on his case but no luck therefore he was announced as dead on Sunday early morning due to Heart Attack. There are many more students struggling here but only few gets through. At least by reading this we can avoid more young students dying in foreign land.
How to avoid:
Before coming to UK please check your college is genuine or not. Please check on the internet and also if you know someone here then please do check with them. Do not think that you can ‘earn while learn’ you can only learn not earn. Even if you earn that will not be enough for you to send the money home. Don’t think that your worries are over as soon as you arrive in the UK. Life is not easy especially it’s not at all easy in any foreign counties. In UK alone there are 28 Tamil Organizations who can help in many ways. We do hope that we can save the future generations visiting UK.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/indians-abroad/Indian-students-in-UK-forced-to-eat-at-gurudwaras/articleshow/5286394.cms
http://www.adviceforyou.org.uk/blog/studying-in-the-uk/uk-indian-students-homeless-and-hungry/