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The Cypriot capital, Nicosia. More than £15m of loans for graduates from Cyprus are not being repaid. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features

More than £50m of tuition fee loans to EU graduates have not been repaid over the last five years, according to the Student Loans Company. The SLC has hired to track down hundreds of overseas graduates from UK universities who have gone off the radar.

More than £15m of loans for graduates from Cyprus are not being repaid and the SLC lacks information about where some European graduates are living, as well as whether they are working, in regard to loans totalling £41m. The figures are contained in a reply to an Independent on Sunday freedom of information request.

Kevin O'Connor, head of SLC repayment, said "international trace agents" were being used to find missing borrowers. "We are in the process of reviewing accounts of both UK and EU borrowers who are known to reside overseas and are in arrears, with a view to issuing further legal proceedings against those who do not respond to us."

The SLC appointed a UK-based tracing agency for overseas traces and collection in January 2010.

Tuition fees for students in England and Wales are now capped at £9,000 a year.

Conservative MP Andrew Percy told the Independent on Sunday: "With British students paying more in tuition than ever before, many people will not understand how it is possible that foreign students from the EU are able to turn up to the UK, run up taxpayer-backed debts and then leave.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "The overwhelming majority of overseas borrowers are honest and want to repay the loans they have received.

"However, all borrowers need to know that they cannot evade their obligation to repay simply by moving overseas.

"We actively trace those in arrears and will obtain court orders in other jurisdictions to require repayment if necessary. /"Press Association / Guardian