ICYMI: Nigerian family in Canada faces deportation over wife’s fake admission letter

Lola Akinlade, a Nigerian migrant, and her family living in Canada are facing deportation after authorities discovered they came into the country through a fake college admission letter.

The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had confronted Akinlade a few weeks before she graduated from Nova Scotia Community College in 2019 over the authenticity of her admission letter.

The IRCC said the document Akinlade used to enter Canada in 2016 was a fake and asked her to explain herself.

Samson Akinlade, her husband, and David, her eight-year-old Nigerian-born son, joined her in Nova Scotia in 2018. They have now lost their temporary resident status.

Their younger son, born in Canada in 2021, does not have medical coverage because of his parents’ status.

The three oldest members of the family have been asked to leave the country voluntarily. They cannot work or go to school.

The family said it sold their home in Nigeria to fund the tens of thousands of dollars required for Lola’s Canadian tuition.

In a recent interview, Akinlade said realising she had relied on a fake document to get her study permit devastated her.

The social services graduate said an IRCC officer wrote to her in March 2023 that the department believed she knew the document was fake, “as per balance of probabilities”.

Lola added that she lost her study permit in Canada because of the fake letter and was denied when she attempted to apply for a postgraduate work permit and a temporary resident permit.

HOW SHE WAS SCAMMED

Akinlade said a man she met in Lagos claimed to be an immigration consultant and had promised to guide her through how to become an international student by applying for a master’s degree in business administration.

The mother of two said she did not discuss a particular university with the agent but just wanted to study at a high-quality Canadian institution.

As part of the documents required, Akinlade said she gave the agent her international passport and university transcripts, along with payment.

After several months, she said the agent gave her a study permit to enter Canada, plane tickets, and an acceptance letter to the University of Regina.

Akinlade said she flew to Canada in late December 2016, hoping to start classes in January 2017.

However, she got a call from the agent en route to the university, who told her there were no spaces available and she would have to go on a waitlist.

Akinlade said she never contacted the university owing to the change in plans and began to search for a new school and a new programme.

Two years later, she received a notice from IRCC telling her the acceptance letter from the University of Regina was a fake.

“Please look into my file,” she pleaded with Canadian authorities. “I just want this to be sorted out.”

Amanat Sandhu, Akinlade’s lawyer, said the family is filing a humanitarian application to stay.

Sandhu said it is common for her downtown Toronto firm to see what she describes as “rogue agents” supplying immigrants with bad information.

“Overall, there’s a lot of people that get into this sticky situation where they trust an agent and then the agent doesn’t perform the way that they’re supposed to,” she said.

Sean Fraser, IRCC minister, said he received increasing reports of international students and graduates facing removal from Canada after letters of acceptance submitted as part of their study permit application were determined to be fraudulent.

Fraser assured that international students found to be innocent victims of fraud will not face deportation.