He was accused of cheating in an English language exam he took in 2012, and was held in immigration detention for 14 days.
He returned to Pakistan and has been unable to clear his name from there. He speaks fluent English with a Scottish accent.
He said: "I was handcuffed and held in a nightmarish detention centre. Since coming back home I've struggled to explain to my family what happened. My father is a respectable senior banker, who worked for the same bank in Karachi for 42 years. He poured so much money into sending me to the UK to study. It was such a prestigious thing, to send your son to the UK for higher education.
"I was a young chap of 18 when I left home and then I came back with an accusation from the UK government that I'm a cheat, a con artist, that I submitted fake documents. None of my family believed me except my mum.
"It was devastating. I started hating myself; stupid thoughts came into my mind. I can't get visas to travel elsewhere because of this allegation. It's been 10 years of living with this blame. I'm not married, I don't have a good job.
I've failed miserably. I've got this allegation for life that I'm a fraud."
Shana Shaikh
Shaikh, 35, came to the UK in 2011 from Ahmedabad, India, when she was 22, to study for an MBA. She speaks flawless English.
She said: "I'd been studying English since childhood. I had an undergraduate degree in chemistry and scored highly on the English tests I took before I left home. I needed to take a new English test to have my visa renewed so I took a Toeic test in London in 2012.
"The exam seemed very basic, childish. I passed. In 2014 the Home Office told me I needed to take a new test because the Toeic tests were no longer recognised, so I took a different test, and passed again. Two years later the Home Office told me my visa application had been refused because I'd used deception in my application.
Denne historien er fra February 12, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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Denne historien er fra February 12, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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