By Dipankar De Sarkar
London, Dec 2 (IANS) The Indian government was Wednesday urged to crack down on unscrupulous immigration lawyers amid reports of destitute Indian students found sleeping rough on the streets of London.

The call by Virendra Sharma, MP for the London suburb of Southall, came as British immigration authorities warned that Indian youths who had cheated their way into Britain now risk being thrown out.

Hundreds of cashless and jobless Indian students are reported to be sleeping rough and knocking on the doors of Southall gurdwaras for free meals - victims of deceitful lawyers in India working in tandem with bogus colleges in Britain.

“We are talking of a minority of students here, but I have been raising this issue with the Indian government, and will continue to do so - these lawyers are ruining the lives of thousands of young Indians,” Sharma told IANS.

Tony Smith, regional director for London and the southeast at the UK Border Agency, warned: “If we find evidence of illegal entry then it’s our job to investigate that. We also hold colleges to account.”

“There is a very good chance that they may well find themselves being deported as a result of that. We don’t want that to happen. We want to welcome genuine students. But we want to make sure they meet the requirements of the rules before they come,” he said.

Many of the youths applying for student visas in India are said to borrow money from friends or relatives in order to make their bank accounts look healthy - a visa requirement - while their application is processed.

“These so-called immigration lawyers charge Rs.6 to 7 lakh for each application, and they tell the applicants, ‘Don’t worry, we will find you a college admission and a job once you land in Britain’,” said Sharma.

Students in Britain are allowed to work for a maximum of 20 hours a week, which brings in an income in 116 pounds at the minimum wage of 5.80 pounds per hour.

Unqualified and jobless in the midst of Britain’s longest-ever recession, some turn to relatives or the wider village network in Southall - a neighbourhood with a large population of Punjabis - in search of food and jobs.

The BBC reported this week that some students are sleeping rough in an alleyway in Southall as winter approaches, while others are turning up at gurdwaras late at night asking for free meals or a bed.

Figures obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act show a three-fold rise in the number of student visas granted in Mumbai, New Delhi and Dhaka.

They rose from 6,771 between June and August 2008 to 19,950 visas during the same period this year.