'We didn’t come here for this': Why Indian immigration agents in Canada are facing attacks

Immigration agents in Toronto and Vancouver face extortion threats, with one consultant's home shot at and a demand for CA$500,000.

In a recent development, immigration agents working within the Indo-Canadian community in the suburbs of Toronto and Vancouver are being targeted by extortionists.

Vikram Sharma and his family are believed to have left Canada last week, just over three years after arriving in the country. (Pixabay/Representative)

On January 3, the house of immigration consultant Vikram Sharma in the Greater Toronto Area or GTA town of Brampton was fired upon multiple times by an unidentified masked shooter.

Sharma later told the outlet Hashtag Media that eight or nine bullets were fired, causing damage to his vehicle parked in front as well as to the garage.

Sharma said the incident, which occurred at 1.30 am, was “shocking” and was followed by an extortion threat over WhatsApp, with the called demanding CA$ 500,000 and failure to pay could result in his family being targeted. He was also sent a video of the shooter firing at his home.

In an off-camera interview with the outlet in Punjabi, he said, “We didn’t come to Canada for this. We came for the peace, for the system,” adding that his family decided that “staying here is not the smart thing to do.”

Sharma and his family are believed to have left Canada last week, just over three years after arriving in the country. However, Nitin Chopra from Hashtag Media said Sharma wasn’t the only person from the immigration business to have been targeted and there were other such reports of threats, though not necessarily accompanied with violence.

“There’s a long list, incidents in Mississauga as well,” Chopra said.

An immigration consultant in Mississauga, also in the GTA, had, in December, told the Hindustan Times about instances of those in the field being targeted by extortionists. Such incidents have also occurred in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver, in British Columbia.

Those targeted include a large immigration firm with multiple offices in Canada which is not being named as they have not formally complained about the extortion.