Punjab to provide free legal aid to 700 Indian students facing deportation from Canada

CHANDIGARH: Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal Thursday said the state government will provide free legal assistance to around 700 Indian students who are facing deportation from Canada. The Indian students, mostly from Punjab, are facing deportation after the authorities in Canada 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.

In a statement, Dhaliwal said most of these students belong to Punjab and they will be assisted by lawyers who are experts in immigration laws in Canada. Besides, Dhaliwal has also written to all MPs of Punjab origin in Canada to solve the issue of these students so that the future of the children can be secured. On Tuesday, Dhaliwal had sought intervention of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in the matter. Presiding over a meeting with civil and police officers associated with the NRI department here, Dhaliwal issued instructions to all deputy commissioners and senior superintendents of police to scrutinize documents of travel agents and immigration agencies and send a report by July 10. He expressed concern that many travel agents are running immigration agencies illegally.

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Dhaliwal said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already given clear instructions to improve the system. He said if the system is transparent and clean, then there will be less scope for human trafficking by illegal travel and immigration agencies. A special campaign against fake travel agents and immigration agencies would soon be launched in Punjab so that nobody could be involved in human trafficking, he said. Dhaliwal also said in the last 10 years, if any immigrant Punjabi has been deliberately implicated in a wrong case, then it should be brought to the government's attention. Such cases will be investigated and the victims will get justice, he said. He further said NRI meetings will be held for the first time in those villages of Punjab whose immigrants have done good work in their villages or earned the name at the national or international level.

Dhaliwal also said that the NRI meetings will be held at the district level from July 15 to August 30. He invited all NRI Punjabis to come with their problems during such meetings and efforts will be made to solve them on the spot. He instructed police and civil officials that the grievances of the migrant Punjabis, which have not been resolved so far, should be settled by June 30. A total of 609 complaints were received in the first NRI meeting, out of which 522 have been resolved while 87 complaints are pending, the statement said. Dhaliwal also said there is a plan to bring a new NRI policy by September 30 to resolve all kinds of problems and complaints of NRI Punjabis.