International Students facing deportation in enrollment scam protest in Mississauga and Brampton
Published June 7, 2023 at 9:45 am
Protests against the deportation of hundreds of international students who fell victim to an alleged enrollment scam have been popping up in Mississauga and Brampton.
Videos posted on social media this week show hundreds of people in attendance at protests in both cities against the deportation of an estimated 700 international students who were granted student visas based on fake acceptance letters to Canadian schools.
The students came to Canada after applying for visas through a now-shuttered consulting company in India that reportedly gave them fake offers of acceptance without their knowledge, according to The Indian Express. The consultants would then get the students enrolled in other Canadian institutions, and the fraud was revealed when students applied for permanent residency and the admission offers were found to be fake.
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Some have been camped out for days at Canadian Border Services offices, while others have taken to the streets to protest the deportation with signs reading “Status for All,” “Why do we need a fake offer letter?” and other messages of support.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser said in May that the fraudulent acceptance letters are under investigation and said the focus “is on identifying culprits, not penalizing victims.”
Fraser said the fraud victims will have an opportunity to demonstrate their situation and present evidence to support their case.”
Data from the Canadian Bureau for International Education says there were 807,750 international students in Canada at the end of 2022 at all levels of study with India as the top source country, making up some 40 per cent of international enrolment.
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