In response to the Committee’s press statement that the “over-hasty student visas policy could cost the economy £3.6 billion”, Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, commented:
“This cost of £3.6 billion is deeply unconvincing. It rests on the assumption that none of the work currently being done by foreign students would be done by the 2.5 million British workers who are now unemployed. The real issue is the tens of thousands of bogus students who turn up every year. The Committee should concentrate on that.”