THE minister at the centre of the scandal over unchecked immigration from eastern Europe is facing new controversy over sham marriages and bogus students.

Beverley Hughes, the immigration minister, is accused of misleading the Commons over the true extent of her department??s covert policy that relaxed checks on foreign migrants.

Leaked Home Office documents contradict her claims that the policy to fast-track ??self-employed?? immigrants from eastern Europe was a one-off failure by a small number of civil servants.

Two officials involved in the work and papers show the lax policy also applied to thousands of other migrants, including those seeking to marry or study in Britain.

One internal e-mail reveals that an estimated 15,000 immigrants are getting into the country each year by taking part in sham marriages, 10 times the declared rate.

Another e-mail discloses officials have relaxed checks on migrant students who are applying for courses at bogus British colleges.

Steve Moxon, the civil service whistleblower who exposed the unauthorised policy in last week??s Sunday Times, said the problem is far wider than Hughes had suggested.

??By far the two largest types of applications are students and marriages,?? he said. ??Yet these are the case types which are dealt with by the most cavalier adherence to immigration legislation, despite clear knowledge by the Home Office that very widespread abuse is taking place.??

The fresh revelations will increase pressure on Hughes, who faced calls for her resignation last week after admitting she knew nothing about the policy to fast-track migrants. She is also now accused of misleading MPs over a series of statements she made in response to Moxon??s claims.

Hughes told parliament the rubber stamping was ??rare and untypical?? and confined to a ??team in Sheffield processing a very particular group of applicants??.

However, a document on the ??clearance exercise??, dated February 10, shows there were three teams of 60 civil servants assigned to it.

??ICIS 11 and 12 (teams) have been selected to deal with these cases (as well as) the ECAA team . . . Other resource/teams may be added to the exercise later,?? it says.

Rather than being confined to a particular type of applicant, as Hughes suggested, it appears that her officials adopted a similar lax attitude to those applying for entry into Britain as students.

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