Canada threatens ban as travellers with fake ID seek refugee status
Rick Westhead
SOUTH ASIA BUREAU
Toronto Star
Feb 03, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (58)
NEW DELHI Transport Canada officials recently warned India's largest privately owned commercial airline it would be barred from operating flights to Canada if its reservation agents didn't do a better job detecting passengers travelling on bogus passports.
Agents for Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Service Agency have discovered dozens of Jet Airways passengers arriving at Toronto's Pearson International Airport with fake travel documents in recent months, five sources familiar with the matter told the Star.
After pressure from Canadian officials, Jet has reassigned responsibility for passenger security checks to its security division from its customer service department.
“We want to root out this menace as much as anyone,” said Ragini Chopra, a Jet spokesperson.
In most cases, a person with an extensive international travel history applied for and received a legitimate Canadian visa.
The photo page of their Indian passport was then replaced with a doctored one and used by a different person.
It's unclear how many people were involved in the scam, but Canadian immigration officials believe several dozen have slipped into the country with the fake Indian passports in the past year.
“In some cases, the forgeries were extremely professional,” said Raja Segran, Jet's vice-president for European operations.
“In one case we weren't sure about one passport and asked a professional to look at it in Brussels. He said it looked genuine and the passenger carried on to Toronto, where it turned out that the passport was a forgery.”
Starting this week, Jet's employees in Brussels will receive training to ferret out fake documents, Segran said. Jet flights to Canada lay over in Belgium, with daily departures to Toronto.
Passengers involved in the scam have applied for refugee status after their arrival in Toronto, and remain in Canada.
Under Canadian immigration law, most people who arrive at a port of entry are entitled to make a claim for refugee status.
Investigators involved in rooting out the scam said reservations for Canadian hotels were made over the Internet and a printout was produced to show border agents in Toronto.
“The hotels were a good tipoff,” one immigration investigator told the Star. “The reservations were all at hotels on the airport strip in Mississauga.
“If you're spending all that money to travel around the world and come to Canada in November, why would you book a reservation for two weeks on the airport strip?”
Border agents detected the first fake Indian passport they believe was connected to the scheme in February 2008.
After a lull of activity, more fake passports began to show up in September and continued through December.
Canadian officials say the fraud was crude enough that Jet reservation agents should have detected it.
Legitimate Indian passports feature a line in microprinting that reads “Indian Passport Control” across the photo page.
On some of the doctored passports, the line was little more than a smudge.
Privacy laws have also made it hard to track scam organizers through credit cards.
The only credit card information investigators have for those who booked the sham hotel rooms in Canada is the last four digits of a credit-card number. Hotel chains turned down a government request for help, citing privacy legislation, an investigator said.
A Best Western spokesperson said a hotel in Mississauga “co-operated fully and promptly” with the Canada Border Services Agency's investigation.
Investigators' attempts to contact original passport holders to whom the visas were granted have failed.
“None of the contact numbers have worked,” said one source.
Even as authorities seem to have solved the problem with Jet, fraudsters are trying new tactics. Two weeks ago, a passenger with a fake Indian passport was stopped during a layover on a Toronto-bound Kuwait Airlines flight from Hyderabad, India, a source told the Star.
Recently, police in the town of Moga, Punjab, arrested two brothers who ran a travel agency for allegedly making a pair of passports with different names for a woman who sought to travel to Canada, the Hindustan Times reported.
It said Hakam Singh and Harmeet Singh are charged with cheating and forgery and are accused of preparing the passports for Kulwinder Kaur, a resident of a nearby village.
Kaur paid a broker 10,000 rupees ($255) for the passports, the newspaper reported.
Canadian authorities are considering adding biometric information to visas in an effort to head off attempts by fraudsters.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(PHOTO : BRENT FOSTER FOR THE TORONTO STAR
Agents offer visa assistance in a market in Chandigarh, Punjab. India's Jet Airways failed to detect doctored passports on dozens of Toronto-bound travellers who are now claiming refugee status here, officials say. )
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Comments on this story are now closed
|
Commenting Guidelines
expandContent
Sort By Newest Oldest Most Agreed
I am from India
And I say send those people back. I think the Canadian government should first identify countries that have a functioning democracy with free and fair elections and not let people from those countries claim refugee status. Who is persecuting anyone in India? Mannnnn…
Submitted by Kewldude at 10:03 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 2
|
Disagree
|
Alert a Moderator
Set an example!
Our policies are a joke! Change the laws for immigration and until then prosecute them under the criminal act. They should greet them, say welcome to Canada, and bring them straight to the DON Jail(or local hell hole) for a month, then right back on a plane home all at the country of origins expense. I work with people from India and Pakistan, they say there are actual courses you can pay for that teach them the Canadian system and what to say and how to procede when they get here. Set an example and let them teach them they will go straight to jail for month and then shipped back. You will see how fast it stops.
Submitted by FrdmOfSpeech at 10:03 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 2
|
Disagree
|
Alert a moderator
Screening outside Canada
We should be more like the United States and have Customs and Immigration pre-screening at some of the airports outside of Canada.
Submitted by camjtor at 9:59 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 1
|
Disagree 1
|
Alert a Moderator
Ooooo ooooo! I can answer, kewlaba !
kewlaba asked, “Can someone please explain why these “new arrivals” are still in Canada and why my tax dollars are taking care of them?” Easy. Our politicians are COWARDS. Signed, The Mississauga Muse
Submitted by MISSISSAUGAWATCH.ca at 9:54 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 5
|
Disagree
|
Alert a moderator
Did I miss something?
Why not take the money I earn and foot the bill for criminals? I mean, should I get ill and need medical attention I'm so positively sure that my government will take every step to ensure I am being promptly, and properly, taken care of…right?!?!?! I am so proud to hand over 30% or more of my income each and every year to ensure that criminal activity is applauded and to see that someone else gets a free pass…hoorah for us…hoorah for the taxpayers of Canada…aren't we all proud!!!!
Submitted by MyComment at 9:52 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 3
|
Disagree
|
Alert a Moderator
Enough!
Thousands of Canadians are unemployed these days. It's time Canadian taxpayers to demand Immigration Canada to do a clean sweep in this country and turf out those here illegally, period. That would be a better use of our tax dollars instead. Any hint people are coming here illegally must be returned to their country at the expense of their government, not ours!
Submitted by Sean W at 9:52 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 4
|
Disagree
|
Alert a moderator
Stop those Fakey Fakersons!!!
Ban those Fakey Fakersons from coming to Canada. Because of people like them, the honest ones have to suffer when sponsoring their spouses/parents/family members from overseas as it takes longer than usual. Even if they make it to Canada, they're going to abuse the Welfare system on our tax dollars.
Submitted by stoptheviolence at 9:52 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 3
|
Disagree
|
Alert a Moderator
Pathetic
“none of the contact numbers have worked”…Now THAT'S funny!! Man, with that kind of intelligence going on at Border Services, I feel much more secure…NOT!!! Hey, you illegal refugee, come to Canada. Free social services for all, even if you're a criminal. BRUTAL!!!
Submitted by my2centsworth at 9:52 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 2
|
Disagree
|
Alert a moderator
Just Great !!!!
And under Canada's refugee policy these people can all work while waiting years and years for their false claims to be processed and appealed and re-appealed, they're all out their competing for work with laid off Canadians. And just to add insult to injury my company is hiring hundreds of new people in India while laying off workers here in Markham, including legitimate immigrants from India who've been here for decades. NICE!
Submitted by Toronto-is-not-Canada at 9:51 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 4
|
Disagree
|
Alert a Moderator
refugee claims
what you need to realize is that people who make refugee claims..( valid or invalid) are exempt from abiding by the law…it is allowed by the governments policy on making a refugee claim that they can use whatever tricks or scams they can resource to get to our shores..so using a phoney passport or visa is not held against them and used as a reason to deport them…it is not a factor in their claim…the way to cut it down signifficantly is to have pre flight immigration inspections….that way you stop people from getting on the plane
Submitted by smartguy at 9:51 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 3
|
Disagree 1
|
Alert a moderator
to sc2k , RE: Change the laws!
You proposing international students to not be allowed to work in Canada? That's the most ridiculous statement i've seen. If you are not going to allow them to work, they might as well not come here to study, and if you realize, int'l student forms a huge part of universities income, they pay 2-3x more than what non-intl are paying. If they are not here, university will lose money and in the long run, canadians are the one who will be at lost. Plus, employers (real jobs, not those waitressing part time jobs), hire ppl based on their qualifications and it's a competitive world, if non-intl cant keep up, then that's their problem, by not allowing intl student to get job, thus reducing competition, you will only degrade Canada of getting the best quality from the ppl, both intl and non-intl
Submitted by epictetus at 9:46 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 2
|
Disagree 3
|
Alert a Moderator
people missing the point
Most people from India are not true refugees and should be denied refugee status. However all these posts about refugees using fake passports are criminals and are committing fraud are incorrect. It is well known and established in international law that people being persecuted many times have to use fake identification to escape their countries. This is not fraud or criminal but a necessity. For example jew's escaping Nazi Germany used fake passports. So the point is NOT that these people arrived with fake passports and are therefore criminal BUT that our refugee handling system needs to be able to quickly identify and deny illegitmate refugees.
Submitted by criticalthinking at 9:45 AM Tuesday, February 03 2009
Agree 2
|
Disagree 4
|
Alert a moderator
Page 1 of 5
