No deportation now for Indian students in Canada, authorities order review

Canada's minister Sean Fraser Wednesday announced a task force has been formed to look into each case and help the victims of the fraud.

"International students, who are genuine applicants who came to Canada to study and were victimised by fraudsters, will be given permission to remain in Canada. Those who are complicit in a fraudulent scheme will bear the full consequences under Canadian law," he said.

Imminent deportations have been halted during this review process, Fraser added.

Last week, the Canadian government put on hold the deportation of the students, days after they hit the streets against the possibility of their forced departure to India.

However, it was not known what the next move was and how long the relief would last.

The Canada Border Services Agency had recently issued deportation letters to around 700 Indian students, mostly from Punjab after it found their admission letters to Canadian universities to be fake.

Most of these students arrived in Canada in 2018 but claimed the issue of fake letters surfaced only after five years when they applied for permanent residency.

The issue reverberated in the Canadian parliament where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his focus was on "identifying the culprits and not penalising the victims."