Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Monday urged Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar to save the future of hundreds of Punjabi students “who were facing deportation after being duped by an unscrupulous education services agent” by taking up their case with the Canadian authorities.

In a letter to Jaishankar, the former Union Cabinet minister said while 700 students had faced action on the same ground earlier, now it had come to light that 200 more students had been served deportation orders by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) after it was revealed that they had been given fake admission letters by an authorised agent – Education Migration Services, Jalandhar.

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Explaining the fraud perpetrated on the students,Badal said first they were given forged admission letters to a renowned college after being charged Rs 16 lakh to Rs 20 lakh each for the same.

The Lok Sabha member from Bathinda said when they reached Canada, the students were informed that the admission had been cancelled and admission was secured for them in an alternative institution.

The SAD leader said the students up-skilled themselves in the alternative institution but were issued deportation orders when they applied for Permanent Residency as their original admission documents were found to be fake.

The former Union minister said this scam was continuing for a long time and the authorised Indian education agent alone could not have engineered it all alone without the involvement of Canadian operatives or educational institutions in Canada.

“Action needs to be taken against all such persons including Canadian colleges giving admissions to students above their capacity intake,” Badal said. She said as far as the students were concerned, they were duped by the education services agent who posed as an authorised representative of a college in Canada.

“The students never intended to play any fraud. They followed the correct procedure before applying for Permanent Residency and if they had known otherwise they would not have applied for the same”, the Member of Parliament added.

Badal said the emphasis should be on taking strict action against dubious institutions as well as authorised agents who had played with the future of the students. “Unsuspecting students who are victims to this scam should be treated sympathetically as they have fulfilled all needed criteria for securing Permanent Residency after up-skilling themselves and should be granted the same without any hindrance,” she added.