3 African Exchange Students Disappear on Trip to Parliament

It seems that there is now another loophole in Britain's immigration laws - becoming an exchange student:

Three African exchange students have vanished during a trip to the Houses of Parliament.

The three Ethiopian men were among a group of nine visitors who were staying with families in Hartlepool as part of a three-month visit to the UK.

But at the end of a day's tour in the Houses of Commons and Lords, the trio failed to turn up and organisers Global Xchange were forced to report them missing.

Police and Home Office chiefs are now investigating their disappearance.

Organisers say their main concern is for the safety of the men, who have been named as Zerihun Weldeyohans, 24, Habtamu Debela, 27, and 21-year-old Muluneh Tilahun Abera.

They had left the rest of the group to buy telephone calling cards at around 6pm, but did not rejoin their group of return to their London hotel.

Concerns grew further when none of them turned up for the 11am journey to Hartlepool the following morning.

All have valid visas which run until September 9.

The Global Xchange programme involves 18 volunteers, nine from the UK and nine from Ethiopia, living in Hartlepool while working for community organisations.

Zerihun is based at Cafe 177 and Headline Futures, Habtamu at the West View Project, while Muluneh has been working at Hartlepool United's study support centre.

A statement released by the organisers said the men went missing on July 15.

It read: 'All three are male and aged between 21 and 24. The group had been on a trip to London to visit the Houses of Parliament.

'After the visit some of the group were socialising at the South Bank Centre but the three young men went their separate ways to purchase some telephone calling cards.'

It continued: 'The young men have not made any contact with British Council, VSO or their project supervisors in Hartlepool and the primary concern is for their safety as they were on their first visit to London.

'The police have been informed and are treating this as a missing persons case. The police have undertaken standard inquiries to establish the location and safety of the young men.

'The programme is due to run until August 31, and the young people had not indicated that they intended to resign from the group. All three are in possession of valid visas and return flights.'

A spokesman for the Home Office said they would become involved if the men stayed in the country longer than their visa allowed.

To be completely honest, those three men are perhaps the least of our worries - because they are the tip of an alarming iceberg.

On 20th July a Home Affairs Select Committee report revealed that 'tens of thousands' of illegal immigrants have come to Britain to work after fraudulently applying for a student visa - and the government has been aware of the problem for at least a decade:

The Government's failure to tackle bogus colleges has allowed tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into the UK, a damning report will say today.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee will say most came in on fraudulent visas in order to work illegally and not to further their education.

The report questioned the rigour of college inspections by officials and criticised the UK Border Agency for giving advance notice of inspections to more than 80 per cent of colleges.

Use of the term "college" should be restricted to registered
institutions, the committee said.

Last year the Yorkshire Post revealed that police were investigating a major scam involving bogus qualifications for British citizenship which has netted about £250,000 from unsuspecting immigrants.

It gets worse, however. In Lincolnshire, the government has allocated £854,000 of taxpayers' cash to helping migrants improve their English and 'dispelling myths about immigrants':

More cash will be spent on English lessons for foreigners as part of a dramatic new plan to deal with immigration in Lincolnshire.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of government cash will be spent in Lincolnshire communities faced with new arrivals.

The £854,000 programme will boost funding for groups set up to allow immigrants to improve their English.

The groups aim to bring new arrivals together with local residents.

The scheme also aims to dispel stereotypes about immigrants – and bring communities closer together.

In addition, more money will be spent on English language teachers, and producing leaflets and websites in Eastern European languages.

Meanwhile, in inner city Bristol, one in twenty five schoolchildren is now Somali, whilst less than half of children there are classified as 'white British':

One in 25 pupils in Bristol's schools is Somali, new figures reveal.

The number has rocketed from less than one in 500 eight years ago.

It is likely to rise further because the number of births to Somali mothers in the city is also rising rapidly – up from about 60 in 2001 to 270 in 2005.

A report for Bristol City Council describes the 3.8 per cent overall proportion of Somalis in the school population as strikingly high.

It points out that the children are clustered in certain schools. Bristol now has nine nursery and primaries where more than a quarter of pupils are of Somali origin, including two where the proportion is more than half.Four secondary schools have more than 10 per cent Somali pupils.

While Somalis are the largest group, Bristol has seen new arrivals from almost 100 other countries since the start of the millennium, notably from eastern Europe.

Less than half the children in schools in inner-city Bristol now come from white British backgrounds, the report reveals.

The Institute of Community Cohesion, which carried out the study at the request of the council, said strong, swift citywide action was needed to cope with the increasing diversity.

The last national census was carried out in 2001 so the information it contains is out of date. The report uses the 2008 pupil information survey of all state schools and National Insurance registrations for non-UK nationals.

The study was carried out last year and based on 32 individual interviews and 118 people seen at eight focus groups.

The institute says the changes have created a range of tensions and challenges with potentially serious implications.

They report's authors speak of a perceived lack of leadership from the council and say there is a need to make community cohesion not a specialist interest but part of the mainstream "core business" of local authority services.

"There needs to be a systematic, high profile, council-wide commitment to addressing community cohesion in general and the challenges raised by the growing diversity in schools in particular. Without this the situation is likely to deteriorate," the report said.

"Schools are becoming increasingly diverse at a much faster rate than the Bristol population as a whole.

"Demographic changes have occurred swiftly and without warning in some schools, with potentially destabilising effects.

"Many of those working in schools, the education service and the council more widely, appear to lack the confidence, knowledge and skill to relate effectively with many black and minority ethnic communities."

Council leader Barbara Janke welcomed the research and outlined a programme of action she said would ensure schools would continue to serve as the foundation for a successful multicultural society.

"One of Bristol's great strengths is its diversity," she said. "Our vision is of a city where all communities have a sense of belonging and diversity is valued. The report says that without rapid and effective action, like many similar cities in the UK, we could find ourselves in a situation where schools are increasingly socially and ethnically divided. We are committed to taking action to prevent this happening."

Batook Pandya, director of Support Against Racist Incidents (Sari), in Bristol, said: "This report is very timely and recognises both the changing demographics in Bristol and that this change is happening very quickly. We all need to respond and implement the recommendations to help communities learn to live with respect and build cohesion for the future. I want to see the issues raised placed at the heart of all our agendas."

So there you have it. Certain areas of the country are facing unprecedented demographic change - and all that is needed is more funding for grievance groups and a further commitment to 'multiculturalism' and the destruction of British identity in these areas.

Seeing as Somalis statistically make the worst immigrants of all, some honest answers are needed - but they won't be given.

It is time all aspects of Britain's immigration policy and border controls were re-examined, with a commitment given to the option which will serve the British people the best.