Students facing deportation from Canada hold protest in Brampton, urge authorities to revoke decision

The protesters urged the Indian government, particularly the Punjab government, to take up the matter with the Canadian authorities and save the students from mental agony and huge financial losses. (Express Photo)

“Our only appeal to the Canadian government is to adopt a sympathetic approach towards all of us as we are all the victims of the travel agent and there should be a mechanism to hold such agents accountable by collaborating with the Indian Government instead of punishing innocent students who have been contributing a lot to the economy of this country,” he said.

Dimple, who completed her degree in Computer Networking from a prestigious college in Canada in 2019 and is currently working a good job, said that though they had appealed to all students who are similarly facing deportation, not all of them are coming forward to protest due to fear and shame. They are also contesting legal battles against their deportation.

The students, who mostly belong to the lower-middle class, said they will continue their protests and rallies till the issue is resolved. (Express Photo)

Harjinder, another student who participated in the protest, said, “In the beginning, all students felt ashamed about facing deportation but we are convincing them that it is not their fault. How can a naive student know about fake or original letters from a Canadian college when their own embassy – which granted them a visa on that (fake offer) letter – could not detect it.” He added that contesting a case in Canada is very costly as they have been shelling out $300-500 for each meeting with the lawyer and $5000 for each hearing.

“There are senior immigration lawyers like Jaswant Mangat who are helping such students and charging much less, but the majority are taking advantage of our haplessness,” said Dimple.

“We have come here in the hope of a great future and have worked hard. We completed our degrees from good Canadian institutes, we got work permits from the government here and our records are all clean,” said one of the protesting students.

The protesters urged the Indian government, particularly the Punjab government, to take up the matter with the Canadian authorities and save the students from mental agony and huge financial losses.

Meanwhile, Jalandhar police registered a case against Brijesh Mishra and his accomplices including Rahul Bhargava and Gurnam Singh. Bhargava was arrested last month. Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Jaspreet Singh has cancelled the licence of M/s Education Migration Services owned by Mishra and Bhargava. The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Jalandhar is probing the case at present.

The students, who mostly belong to the lower-middle class, said they will continue their protests and rallies till the issue is resolved. Though several organisations have been announcing help, the ground reality is different, they pointed out.