Spike in Asylum Applications from International Students ‘Alarming,’ Says Minister

The increasing number of international students seeking asylum in Canada after entering on student visas has become an “alarming trend,” says Immigration Minister Marc Miller.
Applicants are using the international student program as a “backdoor entry into Canada,” Miller said during a Sept. 22 interview on Global’s The West Block with Mercedes Stephenson. He described the asylum bid as a way for foreign students to reduce their tuition costs.
Miller said his department is looking into the issue and suggested that potential reforms to the program are being evaluated.
While Miller said he could not comment on the specifics of Khan’s case as it’s before the courts, he said there is a “growing number” of international students claiming asylum.
“It’s frankly quite alarming given the volumes of people that come to this country, in theory, with the proper financial capacity to live and to pay their tuition fees, which are four times what Canadians pay,” the minister said during the interview.
“We see that it happens often within the first year of the time they’re here … often for less valid reasons than others, notably to drop the tuition fee down to Canadian rates. There’s some opportunism that’s being used and exploited there.”
The federal cap seeks to lower the number of temporary residents in Canada from 6.5 percent of the total population to 5 percent by 2026, the ministry said. The cap is expected to help address the challenges arising from rapid population growth and the corresponding strain on housing supply.
The cap needs to be coupled with universities and colleges cracking down on lax recruiting and admitting practices to better filter out individuals with questionable motives, Miller said.
Miller told the committee the government is “confident in the way our biometric system works in the progressive screening that operates in our country.”
He reiterated that sentiment during the West Block interview but conceded further action is necessary.
“Am I entirely satisfied of where we are today? No, I don’t think anyone in my position would pretend that, nor would the public safety minister,” he said.
“We need to have a security apparatus that is constantly evolving, but we are much better off today than we were even a few years ago before we were using biometrics, for example. And I think that’s something that Canadians can take some comfort in.”
Miller said he has asked his deputy minister, Harpreet Kochhar, to perform an internal review about the approved entries of Khan and the Eldidis. Kochhar is to produce a report within the next 30 days that will identify “deficiencies that we need to fix,” Miller said.
The minister declined to comment on how the three alleged terror suspects entered Canada without setting off any type of internal security alarm, but said resources play a role.
He said the challenges Canada is having are shared by their neighbour, the United States, noting that Mostafa Eldidi came to Canada through the U.S. on a student visa.
“This is a North America perimeter challenge that we have, and we have to constantly be evolving the security parameters that we apply to screening individuals and make sure they’re constantly adapting to threats themselves that are adapting,” he said.
“I can never be satisfied. We have to constantly make sure that we’re working to thwart these threats to Canada, because there are people that don’t have the best intentions of Canada at heart that are trying to get into the country.”