Foreign nationals defrauded by immigration consultants entitled to compensation under new federal rules

Needed. Will be interesting to see the regulations and (annual?) reporting:

Foreign nationals defrauded by unscrupulous immigration consultants, including by being sold fake jobs in Canada, will be able to access compensation, under forthcoming regulations from the immigration department. 

Ottawa earlier this month issued an order to bring in regulations establishing a fund to compensate clients found to have been ripped off by licensed immigration consultants. 

The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, which would run the fund, regulates and licenses immigration consultants, practising both in Canada and abroad. 

Foreign nationals can currently complain to the college, which adjudicates on such matters and can fine consultants, but the regulations would create a compensation fund for exploited clients.

The development follows concerns that some licensed consultants have been running scams, including selling jobs to migrants that do not exist, or charging foreign nationals tens of thousands of dollars to obtain a job available to a foreign national in Canada. …

But Toronto immigration lawyer Ravi Jain said the establishment of a compensation fund is a “band-aid solution” to the problem of wrongdoing and bad advice being given by some immigration consultants. 

He said “some immigration consultants strive to be diligent,” but the public would be best served if immigration consultants were required to work with lawyers. 

“They are practising law and even some of the good ones don’t know what they don’t know and the client is left holding the bag,” he said. 

Source: Foreign nationals defrauded by immigration consultants entitled to compensation under new federal rules