Since Waqas Jawaid, 34, had his student visa cancelled by the Home Office in 2014 he has been held in an immigration detention centre, his fiancee has left him because she can no longer see a future together, his relationship with his parents has disintegrated, he has undergone severe weight loss because he has had so little to eat at times, and he has felt suicidal.

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Jawaid arrived in England to study business management in 2010, full of optimism and plans to complete a masters course before returning to Pakistan with prestigious UK qualifications. He comes from a well-educated family in Karachi, where both his parents studied economics. His father encouraged him to travel to London to get a British education. Jawaid was so confident it would improve his job opportunities on his return that he allowed his parents to sell their house to help pay the tuition fees.

He was not required to take an English language test in order to secure his first student visa because he had already done an English-language bachelors degree in business administration. All his schooling since he was a child was conducted in English-medium schools.

Things did not go smoothly when he arrived in London. First one and then another of the Home Office-approved colleges he had enrolled in was shut down during a crackdown on “bogus” educational institutions. As the Home Office toughened its stance on immigration, attempting to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, large numbers of bona fide colleges were closed alongside some less reputable ones.

“There was nothing wrong with the colleges,” Jawaid said. “That was what shocked me. The other students were working hard.” No money was refunded by the colleges, so Jawaid was obliged to find another set of tuition fees and enrol in a new course; renewing his student visa required him to take an English test and in 2011 he sat the test of English for international communication (Toeic) exam.

“It was the easiest English exam I’ve ever sat,” he said. But in 2014, as the Home Office responded to evidence of cheating in some Toeic test centres by cancelling the visas of more than 35,000 students who had sat the test, he received a letter from the Home Office informing him there was an anomaly on his English speaking test. “According to them I cheated in this exam. They said I have no right to stay in this country.”

He said the suggestion that he would have needed to cheat to pass the exam was absurd. His level was “far beyond the criteria set by the Home Office”.

Jawaid was no longer allowed to study. He had always planned to return to Pakistan to work, but does not want to go back until he has cleared his name and finished his studies. He has written to the Home Office four times to try to persuade officials a mistake has been made.

“I was ready to take any type of test to satisfy them but I have never received a reply to any of my letters to the Home Office.”

Jawaid said he was devastated by the government’s decision to classify almost everyone who sat the Toeic papers as cheats.

“They should tell all students to resit their exams – then they will find out that these people can speak good English. But rather than doing this they decided to destroy everyone’s life no matter what. It wasn’t fair.”

In November 2018 Jawaid was arrested as an overstayer and taken to Brook House immigration detention centre, where he was held for a month. “I have no words to describe how I felt. It was extremely, extremely bad. I don’t want to think about that time. I expected to be sent back without getting any kind of justice.

“In my head I felt my future’s finished. My fiancee has left me because of this, because she sees no future with me. My parents have lost trust in me because I’ve tried to explain to them what I’m going through but they think I’m lying to them. There was one point that I actually wanted to kill myself. I had given up.”

Unable to study and prevented from working, Jawaid has experienced periods of extreme financial hardship. “I was eating boiled rice for two months. I didn’t even have money to put sauce on the rice. I lost a lot of weight because of this. Even now I’m not eating as I should be.”

Jawaid, who is currently being supported by an uncle, has a court hearing in August but no money to pay for legal assistance.

“I know the potential I have, I know what I’m capable of, but I’m stuck right now. Eight years of my life is pretty much destroyed. I still have hope that one day things may get better and I’m still going to make it. But how long and how old am I going to be? These thoughts are killing me every day.”

Additional reporting by Dominic Penna

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.