Good afternoon, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss today the challenges of fraudulent student documents.
I would like to give you an overview of the CBSA's mandate under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, or IRPA, with respect to protecting the integrity of the immigration system.
The admission of international students to Canada is a shared responsibility among the CBSA, IRCC and the Immigration and Refugee Board, or IRB. The system includes a number of layers of defence to ensure the integrity of our immigration system.
First of all, applicants are required by law to answer truthfully all questions asked in the context of the immigration application. They are also responsible for all the information and documentation contained in their application.
Second, the IRCC is responsible for reviewing, validating and approving study permit requests made from overseas. You heard last week about their efforts in this space to combat fraudulent documentation.
Third, the CBSA will verify the admissibility of applicants at the port of entry and issue the study permit once satisfied of the applicant's admissibility.
Finally, the CBSA conducts intelligence-driven inland investigations into possible fraud. In terms of those inland investigations, the CBSA is responsible for gathering intelligence to identify patterns of concern and, based on those patterns, for gathering evidence and assessing, on a case-by-case basis, possible inadmissibility. It presents those allegations to the IRB.
The IRB, which is an independent tribunal, will hear the case, weigh the evidence presented by both sides and make a determination of admissibility. If the applicant is found inadmissible, the IRB is responsible for issuing the removal order.
The law and jurisprudence are clear. Persons who misrepresent themselves to seek entry into Canada or to remain in Canada are contravening IRPA and risk being removed from the country. However, there are other mitigations in place. All individuals who are ordered to be removed have access to due process and can challenge removal orders through various levels of recourse, as well as have access to the Federal Court. As you heard last week from our colleagues at IRCC, they have tools like the temporary resident permit to restore status and effectively stay removals. Once the IRB has found an applicant inadmissible and all avenues of recourse have been pursued, the CBSA has a statutory obligation to remove foreign nationals as quickly as possible.
As the committee is aware, currently there are a number of active IRPA investigations into cases of misrepresentation involving students. In 2018, the CBSA was investigating organized crime groups and became aware of issues with students not attending school and getting involved in criminality and gangs. This led to new lines of inquiry, which, ultimately, based on tips we had from the public in 2020, led us to identify over 2,000 cases where fraudulent documents may have been used to obtain a student visa.
In collaboration with IRCC, we reviewed those cases, and you could see the layers of defence working. As you heard last week from our IRCC colleagues, those 2,000 cases of interest were narrowed down to 1,485 study permit applications, 970 of which were refused. Then 440 applications were approved, indicating the possible number of students in Canada. Of those 440 applications, we have identified a little over 300 cases of concern. This compares to the 817,000 student permits that have been issued since 2020.
The investigations so far have found that about half of the 300 were genuine students who came to Canada to study. For the other half, we have no evidence that they were genuine students, and that will require further review. We found some instances where individuals were engaged in criminal activity.
As announced last week, a task force of IRCC officials is working closely with the CBSA to identify genuine students by assessing each case's specific circumstances. For these cases, we are pausing removals to allow the review to take place. Those who are found to be genuine students will be issued a temporary resident permit to allow them to continue their journey in Canada. Others will continue to benefit from due process and all the protections that are in place.
The CBSA's mandate under IRPA is about upholding the integrity of Canada's immigration system. Doing so allows the government to protect the 250,000 students who choose to come to Canada each year by providing them with a path that is honest and fair. By working with others like IRCC and the IRB, we can ensure that we have a system that is rigorous, fair and compassionate.
Thank you. We welcome questions from members.
