There is a troubling pattern of "no shows" among international students holding Canadian study permits, with nearly 50,000 students failing to attend their college or university during a two-month period in spring 2024, according to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data.
The figures, obtained by The Globe and Mail, revealed that 6.9% of international students tracked by IRCC were reported as "no shows" at their colleges and universities.
This development has sparked concerns about the potential misuse of student visas and cross-border security issues.
The data comes from the International Student Compliance Regime, a monitoring system implemented in 2014 to identify fraudulent student applications and questionable educational institutions.
Under this system, post-secondary institutions must report twice a year on international student attendance and enrollment status.
Analysis of March and April 2024 compliance reports covering students from 144 countries shows striking variations in non-compliance rates.
Rwanda recorded the highest rate at 48.1%, representing 802 missing students, while the Philippines showed the lowest at 2.2% or 688 students.
China and Iran reported rates of 6.4% and 11.6%, respectively.
India, which sends the largest number of international students to Canada, had almost 20,000 "no-shows, " which is approximately 5.4% of the country's total student population.
This troubling data has drawn particular attention as Indian law enforcement investigates possible connections between Canadian colleges and universities allegedly involved in illegal border crossings into the United States.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has acknowledged these concerns and is investigating potential smuggling networks exploiting student visas for illegal border crossings.
The situation appears even more serious when considering that educational institutions failed to report the status of an additional 23,514 international students, representing 3.3% of those in IRCC records.
Combined with confirmed "no shows," this means that at least 10% of student visa holders cannot be accounted for in the system.
Unlike some other countries, Canada does not require international students to pay tuition fees before arriving, potentially making the system more vulnerable to abuse by those using student visas for non-academic reasons.
