Ottawa pausing deportations of international students affected by acceptance letter scam
Federal government says it's creating a task force to look into each case of fraud
The federal government says it's hitting pause on planned deportations of international students who may have been caught up in a foreign acceptance letter scam.
The announcement from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) comes after dozens of international students received deportation orders which accuse them of using forged post-secondary school acceptance documents to get into Canada.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser warned that "potentially a few hundred people" could find themselves affected by the scam and removal orders.
Fraser announced Wednesday that the government will be undertaking an analysis of "every individual case that is the subject of a removal order on the basis of fraudulent letters of acceptance."
To review these cases, the government has created a task force of senior officials from IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The CBSA will provide the names of individuals accused of forging documents and the IRCC will investigate individual cases to determine if the person was genuinely intending to study in Canada.
"The government of Canada's focus is on identifying those who are responsible for the fraudulent activity and not on penalizing those who may have been affected by fraud," said Fraser.
Affected students currently facing deportation orders have been granted eight-week temporary resident permits to cover them while their cases are investigated, said IRCC. The department said that once an individual case is reviewed and deemed genuine, the permit will be extended for three years.
IRCC said it is hoping to complete its reviews of these cases during the eight-week permit period and students will be allowed to work during the review process.
Victims of the acceptance letter fraud told CBC News they believe they were scammed by immigration agents from their home countries that they hired to handle their visa applications. They allege the agents created fake acceptance documents for Canadian post-secondary schools which were used to obtain student visas and entry to Canada.
The government task force will consider a number of factors when deciding whether applicants actually intended to study in Canada. Fraser said the task force will determine whether applicants actually completed their studies or knew of any fraudulent activity.
Fraser said the task force also will work with deported students who may have been victims of the scam, to see if they can be brought back.
Fraser said IRCC has been working to come up with a "stronger system" to better detect this type of fraud.
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