Indian students facing expulsion protest the move.
New Delhi:
Indian student Lovepreet Singh, who was due to be deported from Canada on Tuesday, has expressed some relief after the Canadian government put the move on hold. He is one of 700 Indian students to be expelled for false “admission offers”.
The families of the students, who are mainly from Punjab, have accused education consultants of cheating them with false admission letters. Most of the 700 students went to Canada between 2017 and 2018. Singh also left India six years ago.
Sources said the Canadian government has suspended Mr Singh’s deportation, but it is not known how long this relief will last. Mr Singh was notified of the suspension of his deportation by telephone from the office of Canada’s Immigration Minister, sources said.
The relief for Mr. Singh also gives hope to the other students.
“Lovepreet moved to Canada in 2017 after completing his mechanical engineering degree. He is good at studies. What is his fault,” his mother Sarabjit Kaur, a resident of Punjab’s Rupnagar, told PTI news agency.
“We want him to stay there. We have invested our savings in sending Lovepreet abroad,” she said.
Ms. Kaur has filed a complaint with the police against the advisor Mr. Singh went to Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave students hope on Friday that all is not lost when he said his government was focusing on identifying “the perpetrators, not punishing the victims”.
“We are well aware of cases of international students who have faced expulsion orders due to fraudulent college admission letters,” Trudeau said in Canada.
“Fraud victims will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their situation and present evidence to support their case,” he added.
A Canadian parliamentary committee has voted unanimously to urge the Border Service to end the deportation of the Indian students who were defrauded by unscrupulous education advisers in India.
Punjab Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said the state government will provide free legal assistance to the Indian students facing expulsion. Mr. Dhaliwal has also written to all MPs of Punjab origin in Canada to assist the students in solving the deportation problems and has enlisted the help of Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in this matter.
Mr. Jaishankar said earlier that India has taken up the matter with Canadian authorities.
