Public Law and Human Rights partner, Alice Hardy has provided her views to the Guardian in one of its latest pieces addressing the English language testing scandal.

Bindmans is representing 23 students in fresh legal action seeking compensation from the Home Office for students falsely accused of cheating in TOEIC tests.

In the article, English test scandal: students wrongly accused of cheating launch legal action, Alice notes: “Our clients have been through hell. The Home Office deliberately concealed from them the fact that they had been accused of cheating, denying them the opportunity to defend themselves, and instead removed their immigration status with no in-country right of appeal. They lost everything as a result; homes, livelihoods, the right to work, study and pay rent. They suffered the shame and rejection of their families, relationship breakdowns, destitution and the torment of seeing everything they had worked for taken away from them.”

It has been 10 years since the Home Office took the decision to cancel the visas of tens of thousands of international students following allegations of cheating at TOEIC English language test centres, brought to light by a Panorama investigation.

Bindmans acts for 23 students who were falsely accused of cheating in their TOEIC tests. The aim is for their claims to be treated as a group action, and for the Home Office to agree a compensation scheme similar to that set up for Windrush compensation.

In the article, Alice also notes: “It is open to the Home Office to repair some of the damage done by apologising to our clients and agreeing a sensible, efficient settlement scheme to enable them to move on with their lives. It is deeply disappointing that they are declining to do that.”

The full Guardian article can be found here.