Indian students facing deportation from Canadian province of Prince Edward Island have been on hunger strike for four days. Now they have threatened to go on a full hunger strike by avoiding fluid intake on May 28, 2024. The hunger strike comes as hundreds of Indian students are facing deportation after change in the deportation law for immigrants. One of the protestors said that the around 50 students had already left Canada.
After the hunger strike for four days, the protestors will start a dry hunger strike on May 28 Canadian media outlet reported on May 28, 2024. A dry hunger strike means these protestors would be without liquids and this puts their lives at risk than if they were at least having liquids.
This comes against the backdrop of the Prince Edward Island government’s decision to reduce the number of workers for permanent residency in 2024 from around 2,100 and 2,100 to 1600. It would decrease the people from other countries who are nominated for permanent residency in Canada through the Provincial Nominee Program. The nominees will be cut by 25 percent in 2024 as there is stress on PEI healthcare and housing system. The PEI locals are appreciating the government’s new rules.
The Indian immigrants say that their opportunities are being taken away. Jaspreet Singh Sivia, one of the protestors, blames the government for disrupting the life of the people who were already in the process of getting permanent residency in Canada.
The Indian students plan to step up the protests if government refuses to listen. “There have been no actions taken. It looks like the government has become deaf, Sivia said. “We will be doing a 24-hour dry hunger strike effective Tuesday if we still don’t hear from the government officials. We will be there 24×7 every day,” he said.
Sivia said the protestors realise the health risk they are taking, but they want to fight for fair opportunity. These protests began on may 9 and involved 60 protestors in front of the Colest Building at the PEI legislature. Now from May 28, 2024, the protestors will move to the site permanently reported a Canadian media agency.
The protestors are demanding that people who have come before July 2023 should be exempted from the immigration cuts. Rupinder Singh, one of the protestors told the Canadian media agency that how 50 people have left Canada due to change of regulations. “There are some people harassing us, throwing glasses, cans at us throwing water while people were asleep, Singh said. “We even saw the harassment from people shouting, making the noise all night long because we have been protesting outside, people have been sleeping.”
Charlottetown Police Deputy Chief Sean Coombs told a Canadian media agency that how the protests are being managed and watched by patrol officers. “We have not received any distress calls through our dispatch to this location. We have a designated officer who remains in contact with the group and has open dialogue. The group remains peaceful respectful of rules and law,” Coombs told Canadian media.
The protestors have support from the opposition. It’s very unfair, said Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly, “they are already here.” He supported the immigrants and said those little things that the government is making this excuse about and they should be treated with more respect and listened to.
Green MLA Peter Baker said, “I am ashamed that the province who welcomed these folks here had a set of rules, legitimate, perfectly reasonable rules laid out to which all these people can fully be complied, then without any warning, the government changed the rules to the point now where those who work permits are expiring, their choices are limited.”
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