Canada’s immigration minister Jason Kenney is travelling to China, India and the Philippines this week to discuss, among other issued, the problem of so-called ‘fraudulent marriages’.
The visit comes on the heels of a series of public consultations the minister has started on the issue. Fraudulent marriages are those where a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident sponsors someone abroad as a spouse, but the spouse enters into marriage just to get to Canada and leaves the person who sponsored once he or she lands in the country.
There have been a number of reports in Canadian media of cases where Canadians who sponsored their spouses claim to have to been abandoned once the latter landed in the country.
In some cases, those who sponsored claim their new spouses wove a deliberate web of lies to implicate them in legal issues, such as spousal abuse, as an excuse to separate.
By law, the person sponsoring the spouse is responsible for the upkeep for three years. Besides, those who claim to have been victims of bogus marriages claim that their lives are put on hold, while those who came just for the sake of immigration have moved on.
Consultations
Immigration Minister Kenney began the consultations early September in Brampton, Ontario. Similar consultations have been held by non-governmental parties as well.
The minister says there will be more consultations across the country, and the government will decide on what course of action to take after the end of the year.
During his visit to China (Beijing & Hong Kong), India (New Delhi & Chandigarh) and the Philippines (Manila), the minister is expected to discuss the issue with local officials, though it is not clear what the sender countries could do to help the Canadians.
Fraudulent Immigration Consultants
Another issue the Canadian government is keen to discuss is that of the so-called fraudulent immigration consultants. Canada is accusing these consultants of taking large sums of money and promising non existing jobs for prospective immigrants. Canadian officials also accuse them of providing forged documents on everything – from fake marriages to fake degrees.
This past June, the government submitted a bill, aptly called the Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants Act, to the parliament, and Kenney told a local newspaper that he would not mind if India came up with a similar bill.
[...] Canada Pushes India, China & the Philippines for Action on Immigration Fraud [...]