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News Item : New Immigration Scam- Sham 'visa schools'

Sham 'visa schools' on rise: memo
Exclusive: Hong Kong embassy official warns of ties to crime; others
perceive security risk

Canada has experienced "unbridled growth" in the number of schools
that sell fake documents to foreign students, according to a federal
government memo that urges immigration officials to immediately
address the "unsavory" problem.

The internal e-mail, obtained by the National Post under the Access to
Information Act, warns that some of the so-called "visa schools" have
suspected links to organized crime organizations that use them as a
front to launder money.

The surge in such illegitimate schools has become so widespread, the
document says, that some Canadian embassies have been forced to shift
resources away from standard operations in order to tackle the
problem.

"We defined them as businesses that use the facility and 'look' of
being a 'school' to meet objectives most Canadians would find
incompatible with their understanding of a school," reads the
document, dated April 21, 2002.

Observers say the dubious schools present authorities with a
two-pronged problem.

On one hand, potential students who pay tuition fees are provided with
what they believe to be documented proof of enrolment, which they need
in order to be approved for a student visa. When they get to Canada,
they realize they have fallen victim to a fraud.

Even more worrisome for officials is the fear that some unwanted
visitors, from petty criminals to potential terrorists, are paying for
documents they know are fake in order to get into Canada.

Last month, 21 foreigners were arrested in Ontario as part of a
sweeping anti-terror probe. At least five of the accused men purchased
fraudulent documents from the now-defunct Ottawa Business College, a
school that authorities say sold fake enrolment papers to at least 400
foreign students since 1999.

Newly released documents show the college was not the only "school" of
its kind.

In April, 2002, members of the House of Commons standing committee on
citizenship and immigration visited the Canadian Embassy in Hong Kong,
where they were briefed about the growth of "this unsavory business,"
both there and in Beijing.

The e-mail obtained by the Post, written by a senior immigration
official at the embassy, said the issue deserves "attention ASAP,"
especially in Hong Kong, which along with South Korea, China and Japan
accounted for 43% of the foreign students studying in Canada in 2001.

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