Canada seeks India’s help in checking illegal migration

NEW DELHI - Canada’s Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney Tuesday met Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and sought India’s cooperation to curb illegal migration by sharing information on “unscrupulous fraudsters” involved in the racket.

“Mr. Ravi and I had a good discussion on the challenges faced by both the countries due to immigration fraud. We can curb this by sharing information on fraud agents. There are unscrupulous fraudsters who fake documents and cheat both the governments as well as innocent applicants,” Kenney told reporters after the meet.

“Mr Ravi intends to come forward with measures to put a check on the issue and we appreciate his approach,” he said, adding that Canada “benefits” from the “large and growing” migration from India.

Ravi said that illegal migration has to be checked with full cooperation of the states.

“The ministry will organise seminars in identified districts of various states to keep applicants informed of fraudsters,” he said, adding the immigration authority bill to be introduced in the next session of parliament, along with e-governance and e-migration plans, will help to check these issues.

“We operate in a difficult situation so we do reject genuine applications too but we try and approve as many genuine applications as possible,” he said, assuring of “strong action against those involved in human smuggling and illegal migration”.

Kenney is on a three-day visit to India and as Punjab and Haryana are the states with maximum number of migrants to Canada, he will visit Chandigarh Thursday, the last day of his trip to India.