Probing Gujarat family case, ED says 260 Canada colleges involved in human trafficking

India’s anti-money laundering agency – Enforcement Directorate (ED) – probing a case linked to the Gujarati family that froze to death attempting to cross over to the US from Canada, has found a connection between an international syndicate of human traffickers and Canadian colleges. It has said that at least 260 colleges in Canada have been issuing student visas to “illegal migrants” to take the Canadian route to enter into the US.

The case

On January 19, 2022, four members of a Gujarati family – Jagdish Patel (39), his wife Vaishali (35), and their two children - an year old daughter and three-year-old son – froze to death on the US-Canada border in Manitoba while trying to illegally cross over to the US.

The traffickers had left them in the middle of a snowstorm at -37 degrees Celsius.

This incident triggered ED to investigate deep into the money laundering operation linked to the trafficking of Indians to the US through Canada.

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The probe began following an FIR which was filed by Ahmedabad Police against Bhavesh Ashokbhai Patel and others, who are accused of orchestrating a network facilitating illegal migration to the US via Canada. Provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) have been invoked in the case.

How this network function

As part of the trafficking scheme, Patel allegedly helped individuals gain admission to Canadian colleges.

The report further mentioned that as per the ED, these individuals applied for Canadian student visas but failed to attend the designated institutions upon arrival. Instead, they used illegal routes to cross over to the US. The colleges allegedly refunded fees to the accounts of the students after having pocketed a commission, raising suspicions of their complicity.

“Investigations reveal that to send Indians to the US illegally, the agents arranged their admission in colleges/universities in Canada and sent them on student visas. Once in Canada, instead of joining the college, they illegally crossed the US-Canada border,” the ED said.

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The ED suspects that of the 262 such colleges in Canada, a few, which are situated near the Canada-US border, may have been directly involved in the trafficking of Indian nationals.

Aspirants pay up to Rs 60 lakhs, and become victims

Indian nationals who found the student visa route convenient, compared to the ‘donkey route’ to enter into the US, were asked by the agents to pay around Rs 55-60 lakh each to arrange their student visa and travel to Canada before being “pushed” into the US.

According to reports, the ED carried out extensive searches across eight locations, including Mumbai, Nagpur, Gandhinagar, and Vadodara, during which it uncovered two entities operating as intermediaries for student admissions to foreign universities.

The investigation is underway to gauge the transactions of the Canadian colleges and how much money they made from such “illegal migrants”.

Meanwhile, the central agency has frozen Rs 19 lakh in bank accounts, seized vehicles, and confiscated documents and digital devices as part of its investigation.

What else ED found

During the recent searches across Mumbai, Nagpur, Gandhinagar and Vadodara at premises of several agents involved in sending illegal migrants through these Canadian colleges on December 10 and 19, the ED found that around 35,000 illegal migrants are sent abroad every year by just two agents, based in Mumbai and Nagpur.

“The probe also found that around 1,700 agents/partners in Gujarat and around 3,500 across India were involved in this racket. ED estimates that more than 800 agents are still active despite a multi-agency crackdown on them,” the ED said on Wednesday.

As part of the nexus, nearly 112 colleges based in Canada are found to have entered into an agreement with one of the Indian entities in Maharashtra and more than 150 with the other, the ED said.

The latest searches by the ED found that about 25,000 students were being referred by one entity and more than 10,000 students by the other to various colleges based outside India every year.

The agency further said during the investigation, it was also found that at least two such agents based in Mumbai and Nagpur have signed agreements with several universities and colleges abroad for admission of students on commission basis. All potential illegal migrants are then prepared with required documentation for a student visa.

With inputs from agencies.