An “increasing number” of international students are seeking asylum to stay in Canada after being allowed to enter on student visas, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said, calling it an “alarming trend.”
Speaking with Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired on Sunday in The West BlockMiller said such applicants are using the international student program as a “backdoor entry into Canada,” often to reduce their tuition fees, and that universities and colleges need to improve their screening and monitoring practices to weed out bad actors.
He said his department is studying the issue and suggested further reforms to the program were being explored.
Miller made the comments after Stephenson asked him whether Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec this month while allegedly planning a terror attack against Jews in New York City, had applied for asylum after entering Canada on a student visa in 2023.
Miller said he could not comment on Khan’s case because it is before the courts, but was later asked how many international students in total have applied for asylum.
“There is a growing number, Mercedes, and frankly it is quite alarming given the volume of people who come to this country, in theory, with the adequate financial capacity to live and pay their tuition fees, which are four times what Canadians pay,” said the minister.
“We see this happening often during the first year of stay in the country… often for reasons that are less valid than others, in particular to reduce the cost of tuition to Canadian levels. Opportunism is being used and exploited there.”
According to Statistics Canada, while Canadian undergraduate and graduate students pay an average of $7,300 to $7,600 per year in tuition, international graduate students paid more than $23,000 last year. For international undergraduate students, the annual figure exceeds $40,000.
The government announced last week that it will further reduce the number of international student permits Canada will issue next year by about 10 per cent, after capping the levels at 35 per cent below previous admission levels.
Receive daily national news
Receive the day’s top stories, including political, economic and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The federal cap is intended to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada from 6.5 per cent of the total population to five per cent amid a population explosion and pressures on housing and public services.
Miller has called on universities and colleges to do their part by improving their recruiting and admissions practices, and reiterated those calls in The West Block interview.
“This is a program that aims for international excellence and not for clandestine entry into Canada for any reason,” he said.
“It’s integral to the reforms I’ve been making for the better part of a year to ensure we have a better visa system for international students, including detecting fraud early on, which is immensely critical, but also looking at… the long-term impact and pain that is created, including the burden of making false or less credible asylum claims.”
Universities have said international student enrolment has dropped 45 per cent this year, “far more” than Ottawa’s caps intended.
Miller is confident in the team but is not yet satisfied
Canada’s security oversight systems are under scrutiny following the arrest in July of Khan and a father and son from Egypt, Ahmed and Mostafa Eldidi, who were charged with allegedly plotting an ISIS attack in Toronto.
During an appearance before the House of Commons national security and public safety committee on Thursday, Miller said the government is “confident in… the policing that is in place in our country.”
Speaking to Stephenson, Miller again said he was confident but acknowledged more needed to be done.
“Am I completely satisfied with the current situation? No, I don’t think anyone in my position would claim that, nor would the Minister of Public Security,” he said.
“We need to have a security system that is constantly evolving, but we are in better shape today than we were a few years ago, before we used biometrics, for example. And I think that is something that can reassure Canadians.”
Miller said he has ordered his deputy minister to conduct an internal review of what happened in the recent incidents, including the entries of Khan and the Eldidis, and to produce a report within the next 30 days that will identify “deficiencies that we need to address” and whether the problem is “systemic.”
The minister declined to comment on specific allegations about how the alleged terror suspects managed to avoid detection or raise red flags with border officials.
But he added that border security is “not a challenge unique to Canada” and that the government must work with the United States and Mexico to develop its security parameters, noting that Mostafa Eldidi entered Canada by land from the United States.
“I can never be satisfied,” he said. “We have to constantly make sure that we are working to thwart these threats to Canada, because there are people who do not have the best intentions for Canada who are trying to get into the country.”
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
