Canada: Facing deportation, former Indian students continue protest in Toronto

Toronto: Even though the removal order for one among them has been postponed by Canadian authorities, former students from India facing potential deportation from Canada are continuing their indefinite protest at a site in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as their status still remains murky.

Lovepreet Singh, originally from Mohali, has won a temporary reprieve as he was informed on Friday that the removal order he had received from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) to leave the country on June 13, has been postponed.

The ex-students are continuing their indefinite protest at the site near Toronto airport and next to a CBSA office in the town of Mississauga. “Lovepreet’s deportation has been postponed, not stopped. And our protest is not just about him, there are many other cases,” Inder Singh, one of the impacted ex-students said.

About 300 protesters gather at the site on average in the evenings, mostly those supporting the ex-students.

There are at least 30 other such Indian students facing removal proceedings, though all cases haven’t escalated to the final order being passed, as yet. Another 130 or so cases are being investigated.

These students arrived in Canada between 2017 and 2019, and in rare instances, in 2020. They started receiving notices from the CBSA in 2021 and last year, for a hearing as the agency concluded the letter of offer of admission to a Canadian higher education institution, which formed the basis of their study permits, was “fake.”

Agents in India used fraudulent documentation to procure study permits for them and they started receiving notices from immigration authorities late last year once these were detected.

Inder Singh said their group has three principal demands. The first, obviously, is to stop deportations. Then they also want the adverse entries in their immigration history to be cleared so they can later apply for permanent residency. Finally, they are seeking a pathway to permanent residency. He said their protest will continue till these demands are met.

“Our protest is very peaceful, it’s like a dharna in Delhi,” he said

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