He’s accused of defrauding international students. His visa was cancelled. How did this Indian education agent get into Canada?

2023/06/29 Leave a comment

Good question:

As some of the people he’s accused of defrauding faced potential deportation from Canada in March, an Indian education agent was living under the radar in British Columbia, the Star has learned.

Brijesh Mishra was sharing a rental house with five other people in Surrey, B.C., as authorities in India and in Canada tried to hunt him down over his alleged role in a scam involving fake Canadian college admission letters.

Even after his visitor visa had been cancelled for alleged “ghost-consulting,” Mishra managed to enter this country last October, crossing the U.S. border without being detected.

It was while trying to cross the U.S. border yet again this month that Mishra was finally arrested. Two days later, he found himself pleading for his release, and offering to fly himself home.

“I have a card from India, the credit card and debit card from which I was supporting myself,” he told an immigration tribunal, as he argued for his release.

“If I need more money, my wife send it to me with my cards. That is the thing I use,” said the father of a two-and-a-half-year-old in explaining how he had supported himself since first entering this country on Oct. 17 from south of the border without a visa.

A group of international students, said to be in the hundreds, have been flagged for possible deportation, accused of misrepresentation in their study permit applications.

They say they were unaware the college admission letters given to them were doctored, and say they only became aware after they had finished their courses and applied for postgraduate work permits, only to be flagged by border officials. Some cases were flagged during the students’ permanent residence application process.

Mishra has now been charged for offering immigration advice without a licence and with counselling a person to directly or indirectly misrepresent or withhold information from authorities

According to his detention review hearing, Mishra was issued a visa in 2019 but it was cancelled by the Canadian mission in Delhi “due to possible involvement in fraudulent activities involving ghost consultants,” before an alert was put out on him in February 2021.

Only licensed lawyers and consultants registered with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants can legally offer immigration advice and services at a fee. Those who don’t have those qualifications are called “ghost consultants.”

Mishra was able to enter Canada at the Douglas port of entry at the Washington state border in October. It is unclear why Mishra had been in the U.S. CBSA declined to comment on how Mishra was able to enter Canada without a valid visa, citing the ongoing investigation involving him.

Based on his previous visa application records, authorities emailed him twice after had been in Canada, informing him of his “inadmissibility due to organized criminality” but did not receive a reply.

Border officials began a search for Mishra on April 27 and visited an address in Surrey. After a futile effort to locate him, Canada Border Services Agency issued a warrant for his arrest on May 4.

He was arrested on June 14 when he tried to re-enter Canada via the U.S. land border.

At his detention review two days later, the government alleged Mishra has been involved in “wide-scale immigration fraud” in relation to his roles with Easy Way Immigration and Education and Migration Services Australia.

It said his two co-directors of the company have been arrested and denied bail in India, and argued against Mishra’s release for fear he would not appear for his admissibility hearing or removal.

“He has demonstrated the ability to be quite mobile within Canada as well as to remain undetected by immigration authorities who were actively looking for him,” said Margaret Neville, counsel for the government.

“He has been mobile even throughout where he was staying in the Lower Mainland and … it would be very easy for Mr. Mishra to go underground and remain undetected again.”

Neville accused Mishra of not being forthcoming with CBSA about his arrest history in India when he was intercepted this month and asked about a police investigation in India into a company he was involved in between 2010 and 2013. He initially denied there was a police investigation.

“Have you ever had — like, you never had any other court matter?” the border agent asked.

“No,” Mishra replied.

He also initially denied he knew the lawyer who was supposed to have represented him on that matter, before admitting it was his wife who hired the lawyer and indicating he was aware of the “ongoing issues” in India and the allegations against him.

“Do you read the news at all?” the CBSA officer asked.

“TikTok sometimes. Student deportation in the news, I was never involved,” Mishra responded without being prompted. “This is a fake accusation. It’s fake news.”

In pleading for the man’s release, Mishra’s lawyer said there’s no court record before the tribunal to support the May 2013 arrest of his client. The lawyer said Mishra could not have been in India then because he was working in Australia as shown in the entry and exit stamps in his passports.

Regarding the allegations of Mishra’s involvement in organized criminal activity, his lawyer said the government’s only evidence came from a news report, where it was suggested the man was wanted by local police relating to charges involving several different crimes.

“He is being charged does not mean that Mr. Mishra has been involved in criminal activity himself, that he could have been — all his conduct could have been properly issuing documents, arranging papers for applications with no misrepresentation at all,” the tribunal was told.

“The activity could have been carried out solely by the individual who has already been arrested or the other person that the Indian authorities are purportedly seeking related to this alleged criminality.”

Mishra said he had not seen his young child in India since he came to Canada in October and that their only communication had been through What’sApp video calls, which are not allowed in the detention centre.

He also told the tribunal he would like to be removed from Canada as soon as possible and asked if he could just buy his own flight to leave the country.

After assessing the evidence and submissions, the tribunal upheld Mishra’s detention until the next review on June 23, the same day when he was charged.

Two weeks ago, the group of Indian international students were granted reprieve by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who agreed to stop their pending deportations until a task force investigates each case to determine if they were innocent or complicit in gaming Canada’s immigration system.

Source: He’s accused of defrauding international students. His visa was cancelled. How did this Indian education agent get into Canada?

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Exploitation of international students a consequence of using sector as economic driver, says advocate

2023/06/28 Leave a comment

Indeed:

Advocates for international students say an ongoing federal investigation into hundreds of fraudulent college acceptance letters is a symptom of larger problems that emerged as federal and provincial governments pushed to turn international education into an economic driver and an alternate pipeline for new immigrants in recent years.

News reports emerged in March that hundreds of Indian international students were facing deportation from Canada after submitting immigration applications that included fake post-secondary acceptance letters. Many had already been studying and working in Canada for several years, and had applied for permanent residency or for postgraduate work permits.

The students and their advocates have said they were the victims of fraud by immigration or education consultants, and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser (Central Nova, N.S.) promised on June 14 to use his discretion to freeze the deportations as federal authorities continued their investigation.

Balraj Kahlon, a public policy professional in British Columbia who co-founded the non-profit organization One Voice Canada, told The Hill Times that education agents taking advantage of international students is “not a new problem.” He described this as one of the knock-on effects of “privatizing a traditionally public service like education.”

One Voice Canada looks to support vulnerable international students. Kahlon released a report in January 2021 about the challenges they face. He said Canadians may not realize how “completely reliant” many Indian international students are on these agents.

“Especially with these colleges, you’re recruiting people right out of high school,” he said, from rural parts of India where students can’t look to family or friends for advice on the post-secondary landscape in Canada. That means the agents “are pretty much their sole source of information,” he said. “They’re also under the assumption that all colleges would be good in Canada. This is a Western country, a G7 country.”

International students must provide letters of acceptance from recognized Canadian post-secondary institutions when applying for student permits, but federal authorities are investigating applications that seemed to game the system through the use of fake letters.

The Canada Border Services Agency laid charges last week against an India-based education and immigration consultant who was detained when trying to enter Canada. CBSA spokesperson Maria Ladouceur said in a June 26 email to The Hill Times that Brijesh Mishra was arrested on June 23 “for his involvement in providing fake Canadian college admission letters to numerous students from Punjab and other states.”

Ladouceur added that Mishra faces five major charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and would have a bail hearing on June 26. Christiane Fox, deputy minister for immigration, told a House committee on June 14 that her department had denied 976 immigration applications generated by one consultant, but the June 26 email did not specify if this was connected to Mishra.

CBC News reported on March 31 that authorities in India had arrested one of Mishra’s associates, a travel agent, for forging student visas.

Immigration minister troubled by stories that suggest exploitation of international students

Fraser told the House Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 14 that the international student program contributes more than $22-billion annually to Canada’s economy, and that Canada has a responsibility to be honest with these students and “set them up for success.”

He said “the vast majority” of designated learning institutions are “good actors,” but that he has heard many stories that trouble him and suggest “that there are international students being exploited in this country.”

He described hearing about international students being enrolled in programs “that may have 1,000 students but with room in the facility for a few dozen students,” “brand new institutions” with inadequate mental health and housing supports, and students “being promised a pathway to permanent residency that does not exist for them.”

Fraser said he was committed to addressing these concerns, but added that the federal government will have to work with provincial and international partners on issues that are beyond its jurisdiction. He said it was up to the provinces to identify trusted educational institutions and hold them accountable, and that Canada will have to negotiate with other countries to regulate the activities of immigration and education consultants that operate outside Canada.

The federal immigration department published an evaluation of the international student program in 2015 covering the period from 2009 to 2013. This evaluation identified concerns about fraud and misuse of the program, including questions about non-genuine students and non-genuine educational institutes.

Advocates and researchers have previously described a landscape in which the creation of a pathway to permanent residency for international students in specific programs is drawing in applicants in growing numbers, accelerated by post-secondary institutions that rely on this influx of revenue to replace declining provincial funding.

Kahlon spoke to CBC News in March about international students’ efforts to seek redress from private colleges in B.C. for what he called unethical business practices. He told The Hill Times on June 22 about the close relationships that private colleges in Canada have with agents in India who act as recruiters for specific institutions. “The incentive is to maximize the number, because they get a commission for every student they recruit,” he said.

The emphasis on immigration over education, said Kahlon, means “a lot of these students are being funneled into worthless diploma programs” that don’t lead to good jobs in Canada, and make it difficult to meet family expectations that they will then sponsor and support other family members who are looking to immigrate.

“For a lot of these private colleges, I would say, education is just a front. They’re basically making money by moving people across the border,” added Kahlon.

He pointed out that there have also been similar problems over the years with recruitment agencies in India taking advantage of migrant workers looking for opportunities abroad, fed by demand for labour in Europe and the Middle East.

“You’re seeing the same problem now, it’s just happening in the context of education,” said Kahlon.

Fraser mentioned in his testimony at the House Immigration Committee that he would use his discretionary authority to prevent students from being deported until the department completes its fact-finding process.

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told The Hill Times in a June 26 email that the department is “actively pursuing a solution for international students who are facing uncertainty due to having been admitted to Canada with fraudulent college admission letters.”

IRCC spokesperson Sofica Lukianenko added that the federal government’s focus is on “identifying those who are responsible for the fraudulent activity and not on penalizing those who may have been victims of fraud.”

The IRCC statement said the department and the CBSA have formed a task force to review files “on a case-by-case basis,” but did not say if there could be further charges laid against other education agents.

Source: Exploitation of international students a consequence of using sector as economic driver, says advocate

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