Canadian Government Fights Fraud and Trafficking Among International Students

The Canadian government is looking to reduce the amount of people using fraudulent student visas for fraud or human trafficking purposes.

“We don’t have much in the way of hard data on this. It’s a concern that’s been raised and I think it’s a legitimate one and we think this underscores the need for us to better police the program,” said Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney.

The focus of their efforts will be spent on addressing people or gangs who are suspected of helping young people obtain visas so they can use them as workers in the sex trade.

“This is a loophole being allegedly used by some criminal operations to bring potentially vulnerable young women to Canada to face exploitation,” said Kenny.

Some of the proposed sanctions include:

• Student visas no longer being available to people enrolled in courses that are less than six months long.
• Student work permits being restricted to valid student visa holders who are taking part in off-campus or co-op programs specifically designed for international students.

The government is also proposing to “have provinces submit to us a list of credible post-secondary institutions which should benefit from the student visa program so that we can distinguish those institutions from schools that may not actually be offering quality programs,” said Kenny.