Mechanical Engineering Student Jobandeep Singh Sandhu Faces Deportation On June 15th!

Jobandeep Singh Sandhu was a few days away from finishing his mechanical engineering technician, when he was arrested without a traffic violation by the OPP.  Unless a temporary resident permit is granted, he faces deportation on June 15th.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

TORONTO — Hundreds of people gathered at Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen’s constituency office Friday morning to deliver a petition in support of Jobandeep Singh Sandhu, and to call for permanent resident status on arrival for all migrants and students.

Those gathered called for an end to rules that limit migrant students’ ability to work. Sandhu was arrested two years ago by the OPP without having broken any criminal laws, and handed over to immigration enforcement. It is unclear if racial profiling was involved or how the OPP came to know that Sandhu was at that time working more than the 20 hours per week that his permit allowed.

 Sandhu’s story has touched a nerve with hundreds of students coming forward to complain about abuse and mistreatment.

“I came to Canada with a dream, to study, to settle here, to build a life for me and my family, and I had no choice but to work while studying, like so many other people,” says Jobandeep Singh Sandhu. “Now I am being punished for working too hard, and I’m calling on Canada to grant me a temporary resident permit, and ensure fairness and justice for other students like me.”

Sandhu was a few days away from finishing his mechanical engineering technician, when he was arrested without a traffic violation by the OPP.  Unless a temporary resident permit is granted, he faces deportation on June 15th.

While the background check of Sandhu showed he had no criminal history till the time of his arrest, the perusal of his driver log book revealed that he had worked “way beyond’ the stipulated 20 hours a week allowed to any international student in Canada by the Canadian government.

The Canadian rules stipulated that the international students studying in Canada could work up to 20 hours a week “off campus” without a separate work visa.

During summer vacations and scheduled breaks, they are, however, allowed to work full time.

While Sandhu has pleaded that by working full time he could afford his studies, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has said he was “inadmissible” to Canada for having breached the terms of his study permit and that the decision regarding his impending deportation was even upheld by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

He has been pleading he had committed no crime in Canada “except for working” and had “never lied” about it.

To save himself from the impending deportation, Sandhu has urged the government of Canada that too high tuition and living costs of roughly 27,000 (CAD) per annum had made him work beyond the allocated work hours.

He has pleaded before the Canadian authorities that he did not work initially after landing in Canada as his parents had covered his expenditure by exhausting their lifetime savings and they even had to attain loans from private lenders at a high rate of interest.

He said he had started working full time—roughly up to 35-40 hours a week—only when he had switched colleges and when his schedule had undergone a change.

He has also pleaded that he had to work more than stipulated hours for he had to bear the tuition and expenses of his brother who too had landed in Canada as an international student.

On the other hand, the stance of the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been that limiting off campus work to 20 hours per week during session was aimed at offering an opportunity to students to gain valuable workplace experience in the country and to earn some money as well.

 “It makes no sense to arbitrarily pick a random number and limit people like Jobandeep’s ability to work to just those hours, we can’t have a multi-tiered economy, or different laws for different people, we need a single system and that means permanent resident status on arrival for all migrants, including students”, says Syed Hussan, Coordinator of the national Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC). MWAC includes self-organized groups of migrant workers in agriculture, domestic work, and students.

A total of 357,230 new study permits were issued in 2018. Full time migrant students at public post secondary institutions can work 20 hours off campus while enrolled full time, those in private institutions require a work permit. While in school, most students must work to pay exorbitantly high fees and to pay off agents who arranged the schooling.

“Student workers are suffering, we pay all the taxes, but are excluded from healthcare and decent housing, we face wage exploitation and abuse, and most of us do not get permanent resident status,” says Varunpreet Singh, Migrant Student Organizer, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “Everyone including migrant students should have the same rights, and that means full labour rights, the same fees, and permanent resident status from day one, that’s just fair.”