The Indian Express | 1 week ago | 18-03-2023 | 12:45 pm
The call came soon after Karamjeet Kaur arrived in Canada from Punjab as an international student in 2018. Her agent rang her up to say that the seat he had secured for her in a prominent college in Toronto had fallen through. For the newcomer, it was a major setback, but Karamjeet gathered herself. She applied and got admission to a college in Edmonton.She graduated from her college, got a job, and, in 2021, applied for permanent residency – that ultimate dream for which hundreds of thousands of Indian students land in Canada every six months. For most, the transition from student to PR is largely smooth. For Karamjeet, it has been anything but. Not long after she had submitted her application, Karamjeet discovered that the Canadian Border and Services Agency (CBSA) had notified her of entering Canada using a fake admission letter. The Toronto college, it emerged, never issued her any acceptance letter – her agent in Jalandhar had photoshopped it.While Karamjeet, 25, faces expulsion from Canada, having first lost a hearing and then a judicial review, she is not alone. Unconfirmed reports say that up to 700 former international students from India are facing deportation for faking college admission letters.While the CBSA declined to verify — or deny — the reports, citing Canada’s privacy laws, The Indian Express, through international student networks and immigration lawyers across Canada, has confirmed that there are indeed several such cases. Karamjeet and these other students not only share their predicament but also their agent: Brijesh Mishra of Jalandhar.Shameel Jasvir, a broadcaster who hosts a popular Punjabi radio talk show in the Greater Toronto Area, opened his studio phone lines last week to discuss fraudulent admissions and was flooded with calls from former students recounting their experiences with Mishra.“I would say, based on the information we have, that around 100-150 students have been duped by this agent. But it’s incorrect to suggest they are all facing immediate expulsion. Many have only recently been notified by the CBSA, and it’s a long and protracted legal process that takes 2-3 years before a decision is made,” Jasvir told The Indian Express.Immigration lawyer Jaswant Mangat is handling three dozen such cases. “The immigration department looks at these students as if they have committed fraud. But having interviewed them, I can say that these students are, in fact, the victims,” said Mangat, who practices law in Brampton and Mississauga. “They have paid so much money. They were looking for a bright future but now look at them. I think the minister of immigration (Sean Fraser) should show more compassion.”He pointed out that there was a lapse on the Canadian immigration officers’ part as well: in issuing the study permit and the visa to these students without verifying their documents. “When it is so easy to verify by sending an email, why couldn’t these agencies do so,” Mangat asked.However, others argue that Canada’s ever-increasing immigration and international student targets have strained its agencies, even as the recruitment of personnel to vet such a deluge of applications hasn’t kept pace.A spokesperson in Canada’s immigration department (IRCC), while refusing to comment on individual cases citing privacy laws, said, “Individuals involved would be offered an opportunity to explain what transpired, and the officer would take that into account when making their decision.”Last year, of the 550,000 international students who arrived in Canada, half were from India. This year, the number of Indian students is set to cross 300,000.Both Mangat and Jasvir cautioned that the scale of the fraud is likely to be much bigger. Indeed, faking documents to obtain a Canadian study permit isn’t only a Punjab problem. Last year, a Gujarati family froze to death in Canada while trying to cross into the US.It has emerged that seven other persons accompanying them on that perilous journey had forged documents to get Canadian student visas.“You have to remember that we are talking about victims of only one agent. There could be many such agents sending many more students using fraudulent documents. There are probably thousands of cases of people entering Canada on forged papers,” Jasvir said.After the story went viral on social media, Canadian lawmakers have swung into action. Ken Hardie, who is the ruling Liberal Party MP from Surrey, British Columbia, on Wednesday urged students facing expulsion to contact him. He tweeted that the immigration department (IRCC) “is reviewing the matter — not sure what the options are, but we will do our best for a proper and just outcome”.When asked on Thursday if any students had contacted him so far, Hardie told The Indian Express: “Not directly, but people who know that victims have been in touch… We will do our best to make sure these people get the processes explained to them, and they know what their rights are, and then let the process take place. If they have a story that needs to be told, they deserve to have that opportunity.”While acknowledging that the issue has been around for a while, Hardie said the real solution can only come from India.“This is where I really get angry at the situation because we know some of these people are quite innocent of any wrongdoing,” he said. “They are going to suffer because of the fact that they weren’t careful. On the other hand, some people may have known full well what was going on, but thought they’d try it anyway. So what do you do, if we are lenient, does that just simply open the door for more people to do exactly the same thing?“So there are a lot of loose ends here, but the biggest loose end is over in India, where we would like to see far more attention paid by authorities to make sure that anybody who is offering their services as consultants are audited and certified.”Meanwhile, after her appeal was rejected, Karamjeet Kaur has applied to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Her chances aren’t very bright. “There’s not a very high percentage of people who get approved under this category,” her lawyer Manraj Sidhu said. But should the government choose to show compassion towards the victims of Mishra, it might just open a crack in the door that, for her, seems all but closed.
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