Canadian authorities on Friday charged an Indian man for allegedly issuing fraudulent university letters of acceptance to Indian students and other immigration-related criminal offenses.
Brijesh Mishra, a citizen of India, is facing five charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said in a statement.
CBSA said it launched an investigation after receiving information about Mishra’s status in Canada and his alleged involvement in activities related to “counseling misrepresentation.”
Canada is a popular destination for international students since it is relatively easy to obtain a work permit. Official data show there were more than 800,000 foreign students with active visas in Canada in 2022, including some 320,000 from India.
According to a press release issued by advocates on behalf of the students, those who were facing deportation orders came to Canada in 2017 and 2018 on student permits.
According to a press release issued by advocates on behalf of hundreds of students who were facing deportation over the fraudulent letters, the students were issued “fake college admission letters drafted by their immigration consultants, namely a Jalandhar-based consultant named Brijesh Mishra” when coming to Canada in 2017 and 2018 on student permits.
“After landing in Canada, the consultants told students that they could not enroll in that particular college for various reasons, such as deferral or unavailability of seats. The students were told to change colleges, which they did in order to begin their studies,” the press release states.
“Over the last five to six years, most of the students have completed their studies, entered the workforce, started families and have applied for permanent residency (PR). They were unaware of the fake offer letters until they began applying for PR.”
Last week, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced a freeze on the planned deportation of dozens of students who entered the country using fraudulent university letters.
He also announced a new joint task force, made up of senior immigration and border security officials, will probe individual cases of students who fell victim to the scam.
“Our government is taking action against those who are responsible for fraud, while protecting those who’ve come here to pursue their studies,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said in a statement on Friday.
The students are not being charged or accused of crimes. But some of the students who had mounted a weeks-long protest at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport over the issue said they continue to have questions and concerns that the “government is placing the burden on students to prove that they were not complicit in fraud.”
Reacting to news of the task force, advocates said they worry the process “presumes students are guilty unless they prove otherwise, which is the opposite of how the legal system normally works.”
—With files from Global News