Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > UK Visa Loophole Providing Free Potential Access To Pakistani Terrorists
UK Visa Loophole Providing Free Potential Access To Pakistani Terrorists
April 13, 2009
UK Visa Loophole Providing Free Potential Access To Pakistani Terrorists
UK Visa Loophole Providing Free Potential Access To Pakistani Terrorists
April 13, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The London Times is reporting [see, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6087904.ece] that a gaping and currently still operative loophole in the UK's Visa system is allowing unfettered entre to thousands of Pakistanis.
The overwhelming majority of terrorist activity in the UK [including all of the significant bombing cases] is in one way or another connected to Pakistan.
The illegal immigration scheme involves setting up dummy "colleges" through which the necessary - but fraudulent in these cases - paperwork is prepared. The result is that untold numbers of radicals who might pose a significant terror risk have taken advantage of the process, coming to Britain posing as students. The ease of abuse has been hastened by the degree to which the process can be managed anonymously via the Internet.
The point was driven home just last week when 12 were arrested, most of them Pakistanis, who were allegedly preparing for a spectacular terror attack.
Last year 10,000 Pakistanis gained access to the UK through the use of student visas. The process involves checking student transcripts and other procedures designed to guard against the very type of abuse that this loophole was used to exploit.
An key factor in the visa system should occur at the level of foreign consulate which are critically understaffed, to the degree that much of the checking normally associated with visa evaluation has been offloaded to consultants whose diligence and competence are unknown quantities. Adding to the ease of abuse, the system is so document sensitive that as long as the correct forms have been filed there is little possibility of the applicant receiving anything approaching reasonable scrutiny, with few applicant ever having to appear for personal interviews. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ukloopholeid=4.13.09%2Ehtm
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