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Jaishankar on Indian students in Canada facing deportation: ‘unfair to punish’
Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldip Singh Dhaliwal had ealier sought intervention of Jaishankar's in the matter.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday stressed that Indian students in Canada facing deportation due to fraudulent admissions should not be penalised for someone else's crime. Jaishankar said the students took admission and studied at those colleges in good faith and it is “unfair to punish” them.
As many as 700 Indian students, mostly from Punjab, are facing deportation from Canada after the authorities in the North American country found “admission offer letters” to educational institutions to be fake. The matter came to light in March when these students applied for permanent residency in Canada.
“For some time now, there is this case of students, who the Canadians say did not study in the college in which they should have, and when they applied for a work permit, they got into difficulties,” Jaishankar said.
“From the very start, we have taken up this case and our point is, the students studied in good faith. If there were people who misled them, the culpable parties should be acted against. It is unfair to punish a student who undertook their education in good faith. I think the Canadians also accept that it would be unfair if a student has done no wrong...We will continue to press,” he added.
Jaishankar was addressing a press conference on nine years of the Narendra Modi government's foreign policy.
Jaishankar's strong response to Indira Gandhi's killing celebration: 'Not good for Canada'
Earlier on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed on Wednesday that his government was focused on “identifying the culprits, not penalizing the victims.” A committee of the House of Commons also passed a motion in favour of former international students from India facing potential deportation.
Speaking in Parliament, Trudeau said, “We are deeply aware of cases of international students facing removal orders over fraudulent college acceptance letters.
Our focus is in identifying the culprits, not penalising the victims.”
He added, “Victims of fraud will have an opportunity to demonstrate their situation and present evidence to support their case. We remain committed to supporting victims of fraud as we evaluate each case.”
