In his tailoring shop, not bigger than an average SUV, 67-year-old Jagtar Chand earns Rs 500-700 (USD 6 to 8) daily in Jalandhar city of Punjab. Chand has a loan to repay, which he borrowed in 2017 to send his daughter to Toronto in Canada for higher studies. The loan of Rs 25 lakh (more than 30,000 USD), which if he goes on to pay at his current pace, will take him 20 more years to get rid of, says Chand.
“I got the amount from 3-4 different sources. Since I was already 61 when I borrowed the sum, I could not apply to a government-owned bank, given my little income. I am only paying the interest right now. I had thought once my daughter got a job in Canada after completing her higher studies, she would repay the remaining amount,” Chand told CNN-News18.
As hundreds of students face threats of
deportation from countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, Chand says if his daughter meets the same fate, his family’s hopes will be ruined.
“We will be devastated. I spent my life savings of 47 years to send my daughter to Canada. Back here in India, my wife, two other daughters, and a son work day and night to support her expenses in the hope that she will settle there in a well-paying job to end our misery. Now, when her future hangs in uncertainty, it gives us sleepless nights,” the tailor said.
Around 50 kilometres from Jalandhar lives Navjot Kaur Sindhu in Shahkot, whose niece Oshin Arora also stares at an uncertain future.
Arora left India in 2017 to reach Canada. “My niece went to Canada following all the due procedures to pursue an MBA course. To our surprise, we realised that the
agent had obtained the documents from the university fraudulently. We are paying the price for our innocence,” Kaur said.
The woman, who works as a lawyer, said they can only appeal to both the state (Punjab) as well as the central government to look into the matter and resolve the issue with the Canadian government. “If it happens, this will not just be a deportation but will also bring our hopes and lives to an end," she said.
'Relief' from Canada
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) this month issued deportation notices to students whose admission offer letters to educational institutions were allegedly found to be fake.
This led to widespread protests by students in Canada. One such protesting student, Lovepreet Singh, told CNN-News18 that many others like him have been charged by the immigration department. “There’s a misrepresentation case on many students here. It is being said that they had forged their letters while they were applying for visas but how come these letters were only identified after five years or when they started applying to become permanent residents?” he asked.
Amid continued demonstrations, the Canadian government said it had put the deportation on hold. In another development seen as a major relief, it was reported on Tuesday that the Canadian immigration minister has stated that the government will put a process in place so that innocent students can stay on.
“We’re working to develop a process to ensure that the innocent students, who are the victims of fraud, have an opportunity to remain in Canada,” Sean Fraser, the minister, said, adding that people who knowingly committed fraud or were complicit in a fraudulent scheme will bear the consequences of not following Canadian laws.
Paper trail
In the thick of the controversy around some Indian students allegedly obtaining fake documents to reach foreign lands for higher studies, CNN-News18 went undercover to lay bare the workings of syndicates operating from New Delhi and Punjab that claim to provide any document required to fly abroad, fraudulently.
The team found that starting from a graduation degree for college dropouts to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) – an English language proficiency test – and even TOEFL, which is more commonly accepted by American institutions, everything can be arranged. The formula is simple – a hefty payment.
The CNN-News18 team met an education consultant who claimed that a graduation degree of a private college from states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, or Punjab can be obtained for Rs 1.3 lakh to 2 lakh. Further, the consultant said that for IELTS, TOEFL, or PTE (Pearson Test of English) – a computer-based test to assess the English language skills of non-native speakers – one will have to pay Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 8-10 lakh.
Explaining the modus operandi on how such tests are forged, another agent said that a picture of the candidate is circulated within their group. “Then begins the real task of finding a lookalike of the candidate who will sit in the exam on his behalf. The person, whoever is found, is groomed in a way to make him look more like the candidate and he appears in the exam to clear it,” the agent said.
The money obtained is divided such that the man appearing for the test earns the most while the invigilator, the middlemen, and others are paid the rest, he said.
