Sabrina Almeida
The potential deportation and/or five-year ban of around 700 Indian students over fraudulent study permits raises ugly questions about the integrity of Canada’s immigration system, more specifically its educational migration program.
Shouldn’t visa officials or those at the airport have been able to identify the ‘fake’ admission letters? It certainly would have saved the country a lot of embarrassment and the students thousands of dollars if the fraud was identified at the time. Not to mention the strong message it would have sent to fraudulent immigration consultants.
Yes, we should be ashamed that we didn’t catch it. Instead, Canada again finds itself on the wrong foot with India which is one of its biggest sources of educational tourism and migration.
Most of these foreign students who arrived between 2017 and 2019 only started receiving letters about potential deportation because of the ‘fake letters’ in 2021 and 2022, when they were preparing to stay on. They now claim to be unaware of the fraud and are fighting to stay back.
Meanwhile the Indian government has arrested a Jalandhar travel agent who is allegedly responsible for the ‘misrepresentation’ and is looking for his two absconding partners.
Dozens of the affected international students also protested outside the Immigration and Refugee Board office in Toronto saying they’re ‘victims’ of the scam not ‘culprits’.
As per news reports even educational institutions were confused by the acceptance letters presented by some of these students presumably because the fakes were that good.
Whether the students were party to the deception or not is less troubling than Canada’s inability to catch it because immigration fraud is not new.
The word on the street is that a few staff from several of the post-secondary institutions were party to the fraudulent letters which could be the reason why authorities were unable to call them out. It makes sense doesn’t it!
Educational tourism is a lucrative business that is not above exploiting foreign students as well as the Canadian immigration system. Most consultants and institutions don’t really care about the students’ success rate, just the money they bring.
As suspicion shifts between students and immigration agents, Canada must accept a large part of the responsibility for perpetuating this fraud. Obviously, its visa system is not fool proof and therefore continually exploited by fraudsters.
As in the case of a friend’s daughter, sometimes students switch courses and are not able to figure out whether their study permit has been updated accordingly. My friend spent many sleepless nights worrying that her daughter might be sent back if her paperwork didn’t reflect the change. Being an educational consultant with two children studying abroad, my friend is well-informed about the study permit process and knows what to look out for… but what about the uninitiated?
If these students are to be believed, they are paying for their ignorance and Canada unpreparedness.
While there will always be individuals who try to defraud the system, being vigilant is a huge part of the prevention and protection strategy.
So, what are the lessons learned from this huge mess? More scrutiny of student credentials perhaps… and including education institutions who are laughing their way to the bank in the verification process???
It’s time to wise up and tighten the immigration process Canada!!!
