Students have been organising protests for past two weeks in Toronto and at other locations.
Hundreds of students facing deportation in Canada owing to fake offer letters provided to them by Jalandhar-based travel agent Brijesh Mishra and his partners have started protests in the North American country against their deportation.
They said that it’s not their fault that they got fake documents from the agent. They also questioned how the Canadian authority know about the authenticity of the fake documents even when the embassy could not gauge it at the time of issuing study visas based on those document.
Students have been organising protests for past two weeks in Toronto and at other locations.
Simrat Singh (name changed in request), a student who came to Canada in 2017, said that Brijesh Mishra gave him an offer letter from ‘Fanshawe college, which is one of the largest colleges in Ontario. “But when I reached here he (Mishra) called me to say that due to some reasons, my admission in the said college was cancelled. But he managed to get me into another private college. Initially, I was glad that I secured a seat but later I came to know that the college where I was studying was not a good one and even I would face trouble in getting a work visa after completing my study,” he said, adding that with great difficulty he changed his college again and had to spend a lot.
“Now when I have completed my study and applied for PR along with the offer letter provided to me by Mishra, I got an email from Canadian authorities that my offer letter was fake. My family is still not aware of all this and now I have filed a case and the Federal government has to decide it in the coming 5-6 months,” he said, adding that he has already received a work visa.
“This is not our fault that we got fake admission letters. How would a student know the authenticity of a letter from a college of some other country when their embassy (Canada) could not judge the same at the time of issuing visa to us on the same fake offer letter,” he asked.
Another girl student, who took part in a protest on Thursday, said that she had been fighting her case for the past one year but there has been no headway yet. “I hide my identity when I take part in these protests as my parents are still unaware. They will be very worried for me if they get to know about this,” she said.
When asked about the number of such students, Armann Singh, another student, said that though he is not aware of the exact number of such students but he knows that several cases have been filed in the court.
He added that a lot of students who have got their documents done by Brijesh Mishra and are yet to receive deportation letters don’t want to come forward. “If they are spotted at any protest site by the federal government, they would surely get those letters. We have also appealed to individual students to come forward and join the protests as we believe that we could fight the situation better if we are together,” he said.
Canada-based legal advisor Manraj Preet Sidhu said that he has been contesting the case of one such student who is physically challenged and is now facing deportation after completing her studies because of fake offer letter. “Mishra’s sub-agents are alluring innocent students from rural belts of Punjab and sending them abroad on fake admission offer letters. The governments need to check the illegal activities of such agents to save the future of students who are naive,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jalandhar police registered a case against Mishra and two of his accomplices, including Rahul Bhargava and Gurnam Singh. While Bhargava has been arrested, two others are absconding.
Deputy Commissioner Jalandhar Jaspreet Singh has also cancelled the licence of M/S Education Migration services owned by Brijesh Mishra and Rahul Bhargava. The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Jalandhar is probing the case now.
2024 01-24 
