ELT0008
Written evidence submitted by Sarbjeet Singh
I came to UK in January 2004 for higher studies before taking up the course I took English language exam IELTS in Indi, in which I scored 5.5 bands and fulfilled one of the for-admission requirements. I have done several qualifications like ACCA (Association of certified chartered Accountants), AAT (Advance Accounting Technician) and other qualifications from UK. All study was in English. I have also taken many English tests as well and passed them. After completing 10 years in UK I applied for indefinite to leave remain in UK and successfully received it in 2014.
I spent around £40,000 for studies and approximately £12,000 on legal case in UK so far. I am not hesitating to say that it is completely waste of money and on top of that suffering from mental illness. I have been going through many health problems. Even though my grandfather died of this issue recently. The impact is severe on me and my family which cannot be expressed in words. Especially my life has been destroyed by the HOME OFFICE wrongful decision. I am desperate to clear my name from this scandal as I cannot see eye to eye with my parents. Home office should have given me a chance to prove my innocence rather putting efforts to throwing me out of the country.
In April 2016, I went to my home country to get married and when I was travelling back to UK on 15th May 2016, was stopped at airport and was informed that my status has been revoked and no longer I have right to live in this country. It was like sky fell on me after hearing this news from immigration officers at Birmingham airport then I was taken down to the detention center and was told that you would be going back to India in next morning. I was keep telling them if I’ve not done anything wrong then why my status was revoked and treated like being a criminal. I requested them to give me a chance to prove my innocence.
I was not given any ‘right of appeal’ to appeal against the decision, at least they should have given me a chance to prove my innocence but unfortunately, I was deprived of any remedy. They changed the law purposely not allowing any right of appeal for immigrants hence no right of appeal was provided to me. In order to clear my name, I had to apply for a judicial review which was accepted. The home office presented the generic evidences against me in court like ‘look up tool’ and a report made by an expert on TOEIC exam before judge, due to the complexity of judicial system the judge relied on the home office evidences and ignore my evidences.
Unfortunately, my appeal was not allowed, and I took the case further to court of appeal where my case is still pending. Now, I don’t have any money on me to defend my case as I left the country on 16 January 2018 due to hostile environment. During this time, I went through unbearable pain because I did not have any right to work neither access to NHS.
I asked to my local MP to support me, he sent out some letters to them, but they did not consider it. There are many campaign being carried out by groups and MP’s for a long time now but no outcome so far. The Home office act like a to go in one ear and out the other, no response at all where is the justice for innocent people.
The refusal was made on 20 November 2015, on the only ground raised by the caseworker in her decision is that I allegedly relied upon a fraudulent English language test document, namely TOEIC Certificate in my July 2012 application.
I booked the TOEIC Certificate at the Colwell College, Leicester Town, I took the test on 20th June 2012 for morning session, I was asked by college to drop in before test to get the information about format and what documents are required. I went down there to attend a session before the actual date of test. On the day of test, I was asked to provide a proof of ID and put away any belongings in locker at the center desk, once they checked my ID then I was taken to exam room for the test. There I took the test and result was received in July 2012, successfully I passed the test. My test scores were 160 Speaking, 160 Writing, Listening 455 and Reading 460. This score was about 60% out of 100%. If I had used proxy, then I would have scored 100 out of 100.
We all are waiting for the justice which has not been done yet. If it continuous like that the day is not far away when people lose their faith on HOME OFFICE. They should allow people to sit again in English test to prove innocence.