As per the presentation, the US partners and the Canadian agencies are working in a group to inform authorities in order to refuse and cancel visas, wherein these efforts have singled out India and Bangladesh as “country-specific challenges.”
The Canadian government is reportedly seeking authority to cancel applications for a group of visa holders over concerns of fraud from India, at least in part, CBC News reported. The CBC said internal documents from immigration authorities are scrutinising visas applications from India as well as Bangladesh.
The CBC reported that according to a presentation made in the immigration minister’s office of Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), unnamed US partners and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) have vowed to recognise and cancel visa applications of fraudulent visitors.
As per the presentation, the US partners and the Canadian agencies are working in a group to inform authorities in order to refuse and cancel visas, wherein these efforts have singled out India and Bangladesh as “country-specific challenges”.
The CBC report added that the presentation explained how the mass cancellation powers could be used and detailed the daily life scenarios with pandemic, war and “country-specific visa holders”.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Lena Diab, listed pandemic or war as the reason behind seeking such powers. However, she didn’t mention any country-specific visa holders. The presentation also reportedly detailed Canada’s motivation behind gaining the mass cancellation powers.
The provision to cancel applications for groups of visa holders from India and Bangladesh over fear of fraud was tabled in the Canadian parliament as part of Bill C-2. This bill is considered as the government’s sweeping border legislation. The bill has now been divided into parts, wherein the mass visa cancellations section has been moulded into C-12, which the Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is seeking to pass swiftly.
The CBC, quoting the document, stated that asylum claims from Indian nationals have considerably increased from nearly 500 per month in May 2023 to close to 2,000 by July 2024.
The departmental presentation stated that verifying temporary resident visa applications from India slows down the application processing.
Minister Diab’s office, in response to questions by CBC News, said it has taken “concrete steps to minimize unnecessary border volumes, increase information sharing and reduce non-genuine visitors and illegal crossings at the border.”
