New Delhi: International students who went to Canada to pursue education, and were not involved in visa fraud, will not be deported from the country, Sean Fraser, Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) said Wednesday.
This comes as a relief to around 700 Indian students in Canada facing deportation over forged documents.
In a press statement, Fraser said, “I want to make it clear that international students who are not found to be involved in fraud will not face deportation. The Immigration Refugee Protection Act offers me discretionary authority which I believe should be exercised in the present context,” adding that the Canadian government’s focus was not on penalising those who may have been affected by fraud.
Fraser added that temporary permits will be granted to the aggrieved students so that they continue their work and education in the country. “I have provided instructions for officers to issue a Temporary Resident Permit to that individual…and ensure that they are not subject to the five-year ban from re-entering Canada that normally follows in cases of misrepresentation.”
He also said that a task force has been set up in collaboration with the Canada Border Security Agency to (CBSA) “to identify the victims of fraud; that is, those students who came to study here in Canada and did exactly that.”
The minister alerted Canadian universities to strengthen their systems to ensure that fake applications do not get through. He added that the IRCC ministry is working closely with educational institutions to detect and combat such fraud.
Earlier this month, Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal had written to the Indian High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma, and Canada High Commissioner to India Cameron Mackay, to address the issue.
Dhaliwal also wrote to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, requesting that students not be deported and given work permits.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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