Several foreign students seeking to get tertiary education in T&T are claiming an educational institution in central Trinidad is allegedly taking payments with the promises of acquiring visas and extensions to stay in the country.
However, the owner of SSS School of Knowledge Ltd, Susan Ramroop, who spoke to the T&T Guardian yesterday denied those claims, saying she is not an Immigration official and cannot do something like that because she is aware of the serious consequences.
Last week, a Guyanese national, Lizzon Lovell, appeared on CNC3's Crime Watch programme with Ian Alleyne and claimed she contacted the school, which is located in Couva, about pursuing nursing studies.
Lovell claimed she paid $3,700 to the school and was later told by an Immigration officer she could not pursue her studies because the school was not registered.
She claimed she went to Ramroop demanding a full reimbursement but Ramroop refused to pay her.
When questioned about Lovell's situation, Ramroop denied Lovell's statement, saying her school has been registered since January 13, 2010, Company No S 6224(95).
Her institution is affiliated with the National Training Agency of T&T (NTATT). It offers studies in nursing aid, child, geriatric and patient care.
Ramroop claimed there seemed to be an ongoing trend where foreigners were allegedly going to various institutions and applying to schools to pursue studies and after making payments were requesting letters to present to Immigration officers so that they could have their stay in Trinidad extended.
"Foreign students are coming to our school and doing that too but they are asking for the letters while they are in the process of registering," Ramroop said.
She added in Lovell's case: "after she was registered and accredited she brought a letter where Immigration gave her time to stay and when it finished she brought the letter and left it in the office."
Ramroop claimed foreigners were accepted in her school as long as they have a six-month visitation visa to the country. "Our courses are short courses and they are recognised in their countries," she added.
A student claimed about $950 was paid out to about 15 young women with an alleged promise of acquiring visas through the school.
However, in response, Ramroop said: "No, no, not at all. We don't do that. That is not true, otherwise Fraud Squad would have picked us up long time."
She said she had been in existence for over 30 years and was only registered in 2010. She added her institute was a franchise for other educational institutes in the past.
She added that what bothers her was that there were schools, not under the NTATT, who were not registered that were offering courses like what her institute was offering and called on the relevant authorities to look into the matter.
Efforts to reach Minister of Tertiary Education Fazal Karim for comment yesterday proved futile.