Brampton Mayor joins protest by over 700 Indian students facing deportation from Canada

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown on Tuesday extended support to protesting Indian students in Canada who are facing deportation from the country. "I have joined Gurpartap Singh Toor (Brampton Councillor) tonight at the international student protest site to show our support for students. International students have been part of Canada’s success story," the Mayor said while interacting with the protesting students.

"Students shouldn’t be the victims of fraudulent immigrant consultants many years after their journey to Canada," Brown added. Since the start of the protest, several leaders including Brown, MP for Mississauga-Malton Iqwinder S Gaheer, Saskatoon West MP Brad Redekopp, MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) for Brampton South Prabmeet Sarkaria, MPP for Brampton West Amarjot Sandhu and Brampton East MPP Hardeep Grewal, have extended support to the protesting Indian students by visiting the site.

Over 700 Indian students are facing deportation from the North American country after authorities found that the admission offer letters to the educational institutions they were studying in were fake. Several Indian students, who are facing the threat of  deportation have organised a sit-in protest since May 29, 2023, at Airport Road of Mississauga, outside the head office of Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA).

Over 700 Indian students face deportation

Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal, in his letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, has claimed that over 700 Indian students, mostly from Punjab, are trapped in an alleged immigration fraud in Canada and are facing deportation cases. Dhaliwal has also urged the External Affairs Ministry and the Centre to interve and solve the issue. 

Several Indian students are at risk of being deported from Canada due to the discovery of counterfeit "admission offer letters" to educational institutions. The students had gone to Canada in 2018-19 on a study visa, but this issue arose in March when these students submitted applications for permanent residency in Canada, prompting authorities to uncover the fraudulent documentation, according to PTI. Following this, the Canadian Border Security Agency issued deportation letters to them. 

These fake documents were issued by a Jalandhar-based travel agent who had charged more than Rs 16 lakh per student, PTI reported.

Making his views on the deportation of Indian students, Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser had said that the government's main focus is to identify the culprits and not penalise the victims. "We’re actively investigating recent reports of fraudulent acceptance letters. To be clear: Our focus is on identifying culprits, not penalising victims. Victims of fraud will have an opportunity to demonstrate their situation & present evidence to support their case," he tweeted on May 26.