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.
The immigration minister’s comments come on the heels of the Sept. 4 arrest of Muhammad Shahzeb Khan who was allegedly on his way across the border into New York state to carry out a mass shooting in support of the Islamic State at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn. The 20-year-old was arrested by the RCMP in Ormstown, Que….