Over 100 Nigerian Students in UK to be deported over debts

The Telegraph of London reports that more than 100 Nigerian students schooling in the United Kingdom universities based on scholarship may be deported back to the country early this week except their fees are paid immediately.

Naija News gathered that the students who are owing up to £20,000 are sponsored by a regional agency whose name was not disclosed.

The report which described the students as “some of the Nigeria’s brightest undergraduates,” said they have been told they will not collect their degree certification even though many of them completed their courses in the last academic year.

Some of the affected students claimed they have been warned they could be deported by Friday, October 20.

The Nigerian High Commission in London was said to have confirmed that 152 students had been caught up in the scandal, and that the sponsor agency had been left with a “draught of funding” as a result of the fall in Nigeria’s petroleum revenues.

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However, the High Commission said in a statement that funding had been approved for 87 students, but how soon the fund would be released was not known.

The Universities of Leeds and Essex said they sympathised with the students affected but refused to say whether their visas would be revoked, adding that they were working closely with the Nigerian High Commission to resolve the issue.

The University of Sussex therefore claimed that it had allowed one student to graduate, adding that it had been providing some financial assistance to alleviate hardship for the student.