Around 700 students are at risk of deportation after Canadian authorities discovered that their admission offer letters to Canadian educational institutions were fake.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the high commission are working to address the matter of 700 Indian students, primarily from Punjab, facing deportation from Canada due to fraudulent admission offers. Mr. Jaishankar’s statement comes after Punjab’s NRI Affairs Minister Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal‘s appeal for intervention.
These students are at risk of deportation after Canadian authorities discovered that their admission offer letters to Canadian educational institutions were fake. This issue surfaced in March when the students applied for permanent residency in Canada.
Mr. Jaishankar said, “From the very start, the MEA and the high commission have taken up their case. The culpable parties should be punished. The latest report is that Canadians accept that it would be unfair if the student has done no wrong, they accept the idea that they have to find a solution to it. I feel the Canadian system is fair in that regard.”
In his letter to Mr. Jaishankar, Mr. Dhaliwal underscored the innocence of these students, indicating that they had been duped by fraudsters. He wrote, “I shall be highly grateful if you again look into the matter personally and take up the matter with concerned agencies including the High Commission of Canada and the government of Canada so that these students can be saved from being deported.”
Mr. Dhaliwal, who has also requested a meeting with the External Affairs Minister to discuss the matter in person, argued that these students should be granted work permits instead of being deported, considering their visas. He appealed to the citizens of Punjab to verify the authenticity of the college and the travel agent’s record before planning to study abroad.
For the past week, a dozen students from Punjab who were victims of a fake admission scam have been protesting against deportation orders issued by the Canadian government. Sitting opposite the Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) office, in a tent with some water bottles and food, they hold banners that say ‘Unite against deportation’, ‘Stop deportation’, and ‘We want justice’.
The Punjab natives say they were the victims of a scam by the Jalandhar-based education consultant Brajesh Mishra, who issued them doctored admission letters from institutes in Canada in 2017 and 2018. They obtained visas based on these letters and traveled to Canada. After landing there, the consultant told them that they could not enroll in that particular college and got them “adjusted” to other colleges.
Many of them finished their education and then obtained work permits. The forged documents came to the CBSA’s notice when they applied for permanent residence (PR). It is estimated that around 700 students were issued deportation orders by the CBSA for not having genuine admission letters.
But an independent tribunal, which heard the cases of some of the former students, upheld the border agency’s recommendation to have them deported.
Meanwhile, Mishra – the Jalandhar-based consultant, remains at large. A first information report was lodged against the accused in India and the license of Mishra’s firm was canceled under sections 4 and 6 of the Punjab Travel Professionals Regulation Act, 2014.
(With inputs from agencies)
