Immigration agent denies using forged docs to secure Indian students’ admissions to Canadian institutions

Toronto: An India immigration agent, currently incarcerated in a Canada in relation to allegedly using forged documents to secure admission for several students from Punjab to Canadian institutions, has denied the charges levelled against him.

In his first appearance at a hearing related to an immigration case in this regard on Wednesday, Brijesh Mishra, who was detained and charged by Canadian authorities in June this year, said, “They are blaming me to cover their mistakes,” according to the outlet Toronto Star.

Mishra appeared via video link in a case involving one of the alleged ex-student victims Karamjjt Kaur. It was held before an immigration tribunal in Toronto. This was also his first public appearance at a trial in Canada.

He claimed he was only involved in recruiting students for Australian higher education institutions till August 2019.

Earlier this year, several ex-students from India, mainly Punjab, faced deportation from Canada as the documents they had used to enter the country were found to be forged. These students arrived in Canada between 2017 and 2019, and in rare instances, in 2020. They started receiving notices from the Canada Border Services Agency (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. The majority of the affected students were represented by the agent Brijesh Mishra of the Jalandhar-based counselling firm Education and Migration Services Australia (EMSA), but others were also involved.

The charges against Mishra by the CBSA pertained to “immigration-related offences.”

CBSA Criminal Investigations Section laid five charges against Mishra, including those for counselling misrepresentation, misrepresentation and unauthorised representation or advice for consideration.

While a task force of officers from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and CBSA is currently examining the cases against the students and the government has halted deportations, proceedings that were in progress continue as in Kaur’s case.

Karamjjt Kaur’s lawyer Sumit Sen said Mishra deflected and dodged every question which was asked of him. “He has no answer when he was asked as to what was he doing in Canada, why so many students had accused him as the primary architect of the fraud, and why he has been charged by CBSA and was still in jail.”

The large-scale fraud found in the documentation for admission has also resulted in Canada reforming the process for intake of international students. On October 27, Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced plans to implement several measures aimed at strengthening Canada’s International Student Program and at better protecting genuine students from fraud.

The principal among them is that unlike earlier, post-secondary designated learning institutions or DLIs will be required to confirm every applicant’s letter of acceptance directly with Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). “This new, enhanced verification process aims to protect prospective students from letter-of-acceptance fraud and to help them avoid similar problems that some students faced earlier this year as a result of fraud investigations. It will also ensure that study permits are issued based only on genuine letters of acceptance,” a release from IRCC said. This system will be put in place beginning December 1.

Meanwhile, the task force conducting the review of the cases has found that of the 103 investigated by October 12, 63 were found to be genuine students and 40 were not.

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