Duped by fake admission offers, 700 Indian students in Canada face deportation

Almost 700 Indian students, mostly from Punjab, are at risk of being deported from Canada as the border services agency of the country discovered that their admission offer letters to the educational institutions were fake. 

What’s the lastest?

Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, on Thursday (June 8), assured the Punjab government that the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian High Commission in Canada will make sure to resolve the issue of those Indian students facing deportation due to fraudulent admission offers.

Jaishankar’s address on the issue came after Punjab Minister of NRI Affairs Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal’s plea for intervention, acknowledging that the students from Punjab were victims of fraud and it would be unfair to punish them. 

A motion supporting former international students from India, who are at risk of deportation, was passed by a House of Commons committee.

Who is to be blamed?

Brijesh Mishra, a Jalandhar-based consultant lured students to a life in Canada by offering them fake letters from esteemed colleges and universities. 

• Everyone’s story showed the same pattern of how the letter provided by Mishra for which he charged lakhs, appeared so convincing that even the embassy officials failed to identify any error. 
• The students realised that they have been duped only upon reaching Canada and not finding their names in the designated universities. 
• The matter was brought into the attention of students in March when they were applying for permanent residency by the Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) who pointed out that their admission letters were fake leading to the possibility of deportation. 

On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the government’s primary objective is to identify the responsible individuals rather than punishing the victims.

Indian students march towards minister’s office

• For the past eight days, Indian students have been staging protests outside the headquarters of CBSA in Mississauga. 
• They will be organizing a rally to the office of Federal Minister for Public Safety Marco Mendicino who holds the power to halt the deportation. 
• So far two students have been asked to leave the country, one of whom is Lovepreet Singh from Mohali, Punjab. Lovepreet has been asked to leave by June 13. He is contesting a case in a court.

Australia giving a tough time too, puts ban on students for visa fraud

Federation University and Western Sydney University in Autralia on May 25 directed education agents to cease recruiting students from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and the UT of Jammu and Kashmir in response to visa frauds. 

A letter was written by the Federation University to education agents on May 19 stating a significant increase in visa applications being rejected by the Department of Home Affairs over non-genuine intentions, the ban was effective immediately and is supposed to remain for at least two months.  

Ironically, this development came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a migration partnership agreement on May 24. 

Why the ban?

• Universities and the Australian government believe people from certain Indian regions are using education as a backdoor to immigration. 
• The Australian immigration department is not convinced if the students are genuinely coming for studies. 

For more details also read: Australian universities ban Indian students from 6 states, UT to keep fraud visas out

UK revises visa rules, posing disadvantage for Indian students and dependants

In efforts to curb migration in the United Kingdom, the Rishi Sunak led government introduced new immigration rules for international students including those from India.

The government has introduced a series of changes to student visas and regulations concerning dependents having a significant impact on individuals.

What led to this decision?

• A notable surge in the issuance of visas to dependent sponsored students was recorded.
• The figures escalated from 16,000 in 2019 to 1,36,000 by the end of 2022. 

• The rule also imposes restrictions on international students, barring them from switching to work visas or leaving their studies before completion of the course. 
• This is aimed to tighten the student visa route further cutting down on net migration.

For more details also read: UK is cracking down on student visa dependents, plus updates on switching visas