About 700 Indian students living in Canada are staring at deportation after the admission offer letters issued to them by a Punjab-based immigration and counselling services agent were found to be fake.
Deportation notices after Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) scrutinised their visa documents and found that the institutions issuing the admission offer letters existed only on paper.
These 700 students have launched an indefinite protest in Toronto to mount pressure on the Canadian Government to put a hold on the deportation notices issued to them.
Lovepreet Singh, Victim of the scam from Mohali’s SAS Nagar, has been asked to leave Canada by June 13.
Karamjeet Kaur, who hails from Faridkot and lives in Edmonton, was issued expulsion orders on May 30. However, she has been granted a temporary stay for three months.
The students facing removal under Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) are staging an protest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), saying they were being victimised for the frauds committed by the visa agents.
Punjab NRI Affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has said that, Punjab Police has not yet received a formal complaint from the parents and the students.
“We are in touch with the parents of affected students but the exact number of students from Punjab who are facing removal is still not known. I have asked the officials to get the exact information from Toronto where the students facing deportation are currently protesting. We only know that most of the victims are from Punjab. We are expecting the complete information by the evening,” Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said.
“We are in touch with the parents of the students who were told by the agents that the institutions quoted in the offer letters have been closed due to some reason and their admissions were being arranged in other institutions,” Dhaliwal added.
Kuldeep Dhaliwal has said that the 700 Indian students facing deportation completed their degrees from institutions other than those mentioned in their offer letters.
Investigations have revealed that the offer letters were issued by Jalandhar-based education migration services, run by Brijesh Mishra, who has been identified as the prime accused in the case.
Brijesh Mishra allegedly charged between Rs 14 to 16 lakh from each student who applied for a study visa in Canada.
He is absconding after the scam came to the light in March this year.
Dhaliwal said he has written a letter to MEA seeking its intervention to stop the deportation of the students, and also sought time for a one-on-one meeting with EAM S Jaishankar.
It is to be noted that, when asked about Canada’s action against hundreds of Indian students whose visa documents were found to be fake, S Jaishankar assured that the Ministry of External Affairs was engaging with Canadian authorities on the issue, stating that the students acted in “good faith” and were not to blame.
S Jaishankar said, “From the very start, we have taken up this case and our point is, the students studied in good faith. If there were people who misled them, the culpable parties should be acted against.”
“It is unfair to punish a student who undertook their education in good faith. I think the Canadians also accept that it would be unfair if a student has done no wrong…We will continue to press,” he added.
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