In the spring of 2017, Balbir Singh, an international student from India, landed in Vancouver, B.C., to fulfil his dream of earning an education and building a better life.
Despite completing his studies, securing a steady job in construction and earning his post-graduation work permit, Singh’s dream is quickly unravelling before his eyes.
Singh, 24, is one of many international students across Canada facing potential deportation following a suspected international immigration scam.
“Right now, I’m under a lot of stress,” said Singh, from his home in Delta, B.C.
Like many of the other victims, Singh says he was duped by immigration consultants.
Allegations of international fraud
The story of how Singh says he wound up in this position mirrors the experience of many international students in Canada.
Singh says he paid tens of thousands of dollars to a consultancy firm in India called Education Migration Services. The firm helped him obtain a Canadian student visa and an acceptance letter to a local college or university.
Singh had an acceptance letter to Fanshawe College in London, Ont. But when he arrived, his consultant told him to instead attend Langara College in Vancouver.
Singh followed the consultant’s advice and eventually graduated with a diploma. Then, when he applied for permanent residency, his file was flagged. He was told by the Canadian Border Services Agency that his original acceptance letter was fake.
“I was shocked like how this can happen,” said Singh.
“How I can get my visa approved? How I can get my work permit approved? I was completely numb by this. I couldn’t even say a word at that time.”
Now, Singh has been deemed inadmissible in Canada due to misrepresentation. He says his case is under judicial review, and that he could be deported.
Singh showed CBC News a copy of his acceptance letter from Fanshawe college — the letter CBSA deemed to be fake. It also reviewed the removal letter Singh received from CBSA.
“Just try to find the intention of these students,” said Singh in a plea to the federal government.
“If you find that any student whose intention is wrong … just send them back. But if a student came here with the intention of study and he has done that, please give justice to them.”
In March, Indian authorities arrested a travel agent from Education Migration Services. The agent is accused of forging the visa documents of dozens of international students. Officers are still tracking down the man’s partner, Brijesk Mishra, one of the agents Singh says he used as a consultant.
Despite repeated efforts, Singh has not been able to reach his agents.
CBC News contacted the firm by phone, but the number was disconnected. A CBC email to Education Migration Services bounced back and could not be delivered.
International students gather in protest
In Ontario, international students facing the same alleged scam have staged an ongoing protest, collected thousands of signatures and delivered a memorandum to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino calling for the deportations to be paused.
Their efforts have been supported by advocacy groups like Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, which says it is working directly with around 150 international students, although it believes the real number of affected students is much higher.
“Many of these students have spent more than half a decade of their lives here. They’re in their early 20s. Their friends are here. Their loved ones are here, and because they face these unfair deportations, all of that can be taken away,” said Sarom Rho.
Jindi Singh, executive director of Khalsa Aid B.C., says many students’ families have taken on significant debt to support them. In Balbir Singh’s case, his father had to sell an acre of land.
But Jindi says it’s not just the financial implications weighing on the minds of students.
“I think mental health is probably the biggest concern we have about these students right now,” said Jindi Singh, adding there’s a general fear among international students that they could be next.
Jindi says his organization is supporting students by connecting them with lawyers and helping them with groceries and other expenses.
Calls for deportations to be halted
The international students’ plight has garnered attention from inside the walls of Parliament.
Recently, the NDP MLA for Vancouver East, Jenny Kwan, moved a motion at the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration calling for deportations to be stayed, inadmissibility to be waived, and the affected students worked with to move them toward permanent residency.
“We need to do everything we can for the genuine victims of this fraud scam for them to be made whole,” said Kwan.
WATCH | The Fifth Estate’s investigation, Sold A Lie:
The Fifth Estate goes undercover to reveal the pitch made in India by some recruitment agents, and their financial connections to colleges in Canada. Lured by the promise of a post-secondary education, and a chance to build a life here, thousands of foreign students are coming every year and are arriving to find what they were promised, and what their families paid for, often isn’t what awaits them.
A second motion has called on the government to conduct a study on how this scam occurred and how the government and the CBSA failed to catch the fraudulent documents when they were first submitted as part of the visa application process.
During house debates on Monday, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said his team is working to develop a process to allow legitimate victims of fraud to stay in Canada.
“However, to the extent that people committed fraud or were complicit in a fraudulent scheme, they will bear the consequences of not following Canadian laws,” he said.
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