Canada seeks action against travel agents

CHANDIGARH - Canada Thursday sought the help of Punjab Police to keep a tab on the unscrupulous travel agents, who are duping gullible youths on the pretext of sending them abroad.

Canadian officials also impressed up on the need of having stricter laws to deal with such agents.

“We are very concerned about the unscrupulous immigration agents, who are making enormous profits, by exploiting the dreams of poor youth of Punjab. People are giving them millions of dollars and in some cases, their entire savings,” Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told reporters here.

“These agents are providing them fake documents like bank statements, birth and death certificates, IELTS score-card and academic certificates. We caught them during scrutiny, resulting in visa refusals. We have made a proper file elaborating various means adopted by these agents,” he said.

“Agents’ promises and guarantees are usually designed to exploit the applicants. Many applicants give money to agents, who disappeared later on. Therefore I am here to urge Indian government to bring in stronger laws to crackdown on these unscrupulous agents,” he added.

Kenney also met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Thursday to discuss this issue with him.

“I have also met the Punjab chief minister today and urged him to direct the state police to make much greater effort. So far we have got positive response but now we also want positive action. They should run anti-fraud campaign against agents and protect the citizens of Punjab,” Kenney said.

“We are ready to work collectively with Punjab Police and we will provide them whatever information that they want from us. Here I also make a public call to victims to come forward and help us to combat them,” he said.

On the issue of NRI grooms deceiving their wives, Kenney said: “Yes, this is also a very serious issue. We appeal to women to be very careful. We have also opened consulates in Canada to deal with such marriages of inconvenience.”