3000+ Nigerian study permit holders in Canada never attended classes – Report

By Samuel Eugene

Almost 3902 students from Nigeria who received Canada study permits, are reported as to have never showed up in class, making them non-compliant with their student visas. A further 1,675 are unaccounted for, a report on international students’ activities has revealed.

This makes Nigerians the third largest group of international students who did not attend classes in the last two months in the Spring of 2024.

The International Student Compliance Regime produced this data, which is designed to identify bogus students and help provinces to identify questionable higher institutions.

In total, 49,676 international students who were supposedly enrolled in colleges and universities in Canada, did not comply to their visa terms by turning up to study, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) figures.

Students from India accounted for the highest figure at 19,582, while those from China accounted for 4,297.

Henry Lotin, an expert on immigration and former federal economist, said that in order to help reduce an abuse of the system, it will be expedient to mandate that international students pay their full tuition fees before they arrive Canada.

Marc Miller, Canada’s Immigration had made new rules for international students in November last year tougher in order to prevent abuse of the system.

“Canada has seen an increase in exploitation of its temporary resident visas, including students. What was once a low-risk temporary resident program is now being assessed as higher-risk given changes to the global migration context, including the growing number of conflicts and crises, increased abuse and fraud, and increased organised smuggling,” said Renée LeBlanc Proctor, spokesperson for Miller.

“Canada is also aware of the reports of individuals crossing irregularly into the US from Canada, often with the help of facilitation or smuggling networks,” Proctor added.

As it stands now, colleges and universities that do not submit compliance reports will be suspended from enrolling international students for close to a year.

Aside from the 49,676 international students who never attended classes, colleges and universities failed to report on the status of a 23,514 international students, which represents 3.3 per cent in the IRCC records.

“In broad terms, this shows that at least 10 per cent of student visa holders are unaccounted for. For the first time, we have definitive data. There are still questions about where all student visa holders are”, said Lotin.

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