Punjab announces free legal aid to 700 Indian students facing extradition in Canada
Chandigarh
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government on Thursday announced to provide free legal aid to 700 Indian students facing deportation from Canada.
This was announced by Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal who said most of these students are Punjabis.
The students would be provided with legal aid by immigration law experts in Canada, he said, while urging Canadian MPs of Punjabi origin to come forward and help them.
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Dhaliwal also chaired a high-level meeting on the issues with civil and police officials and directed officials to verify travel agents and file a report by 10 July.
“CM Mann has already given clear instructions to improve the system. If the system is transparent and clean, then there will be less scope for human trafficking by fake travel/immigration agencies,” he added.
He called for a special drive to identify fake travel agents to ensure that such incidents of human trafficking don’t occur in the future.
He also called to identify cases where immigrant Punjabi is implicated in wrong cases and assured fair investigation and justice in such cases.
He also announced bringing a new NRI policy to resolve issues faced by them and said their contribution to making the state ‘Rangla Punjab’, can’t be ignored.
Earlier, Canada’s Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser announced to come up with a solution to these students’ issues and said they will be given a fair chance to prove their innocence.
The issue of fake offer letters of admission into Canadian Universities came to light after Indian students applied for permanent housing in March this year.
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This led to the government declaring their admission into various courses in its Universities as null and void, and decided to deport them back to India.
