Over 200 Canadian colleges involved in trafficking Indians into US, ED launches probe

The Directorate of Enforcement said on Tuesday that it is probing the involvement of over 200 Canadian colleges in the alleged human trafficking case. The searches were part of the ongoing probe in the case of "Bhavesh Ashokbhai Patel and others for hatching a well-planned conspiracy, to send the victims/persons to USA through Canada via illegal channel thereby committing the offence of human trafficking," the statement released by the ED on Tuesday stated. The "ED investigation revealed that for sending the Indian National to USA illegally, the accused arranged admission of the individuals in Colleges/Universities based in Canada and thereby applied for students’ visa for Canada." The ED said it was revealed during searches conducted that around 25,000 students are being referred by one entity and more than 10,000 students by another to various colleges based outside India every year. "Further, it is gathered that there are around 1700 agents/partners of based in Gujarat and around 3500 agents/partners of other entity all over India and out of which around 800 are active," the ED said.