Education agent arrested in Canada calamity

Over recent weeks media outlets in both India and Canada have covered the story of a large group of Indian international students in Canada who are facing deportation as a result of alleged fraud committed by the education agent they worked with. In summary it is alleged that the education agent – Education and Migration Services in Jalandhar – provided the students with fake letters of offer from educational institutions in Canada. Those letters – which the students thought were genuine – were used to obtain Canadian study permits. Once the students arrived in Canada the agent advised them that there was some problem with the institution that made the ‘offer’, which meant that it was no longer possible to study there. Most students then made arrangements to study at a different institution in Canada.

As those students completed their studies many applied for a work permit. It was at that point that the Canada Border Services Agency detected the original fake letters and commenced action against the students. The estimate of affected students varies between ‘dozens’ and 700 depending on the media source.

On 31 March 2023, the CBC’s investigative journalism arm, The Fifth Estate, reported that police in Jalandhar have arrested Rahul Bhargava of Education and Migration Services. They are still looking for his partners, Brijesh Mishra and Gurnam Singh.

The CBC story once again highlights the damaging impact that dishonest education agents have on international students and their families:

Baldev Raj from Jalandhar was cheated out of $14,000 that he paid to Brijesh Mishra to cover two semesters of tuition at Sheridan College for his daughter. Mishra also provided a fake letter of offer from Sheridan, which Raj’s daughter used to obtain a study permit. She now faces deportation.

Student Ranbir Singh told The Fifth Estate that Mishra also scammed him for $14,000 which should have covered the first year of his tuition at Algonquin College.

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