Justice minister Dermot Ahern is reviewing the laws on student immigration after it emerged that, in the first three months of the year, 29 foreign students have been considered for deportation for breaching work permit conditions.

The review, which is almost complete, will address "certain aspects of student migration from outside the EEA which have given rise to concern in recent years," Ahern told the Dáil last week.

Students from outside the EU who are attending a legitimate course in Ireland are allowed to work up to 20 hours a week during term and up to 40 hours during holidays without the need for a permit.

The students must be able to show a class attendance rate of more than 85%, and gardaí can seek pay slips and bank statements to ensure they are not exceeding their work limits.

Despite such checks, thousands of students, including a large number from China attending language schools here, regularly exceed the 20-hour weekly work limit and in many cases are working in two or three low-paid jobs.

Some language schools operate a scam in which they provide false attendance records to gardaí on behalf of a 'student', who is charged a fee for this 'service'.

Earlier this month, Chinese man Bin Yang, 26, was jailed for two years for his part in a student visa scam. Under the scam, Yang referred students who didn't meet the visa requirements to an official in the garda immigration bureau, who granted them a visa extension.

Yang charged each student €4,000 while the official, Dara Revins, 28, who was jailed for 18 months last month, received €1,500.

The steep increase in unemployment in the past year has prompted the current clampdown.