A trove of intelligence reports produced by the Canadian Border Services Agency between 2019 and 2021 highlighted a rising rate in student visa holders applying for refugee status.

In 2021, for example, an agency assessment warned that the proportion of refugee claimants on students’ visas had reached 23 per cent in the first quarter of that year, compared to just five per cent in 2018. The agency warned that “human smuggling networks” were likely exploiting student visas to get people into the country and that some were even producing false acceptance letters and documentation from Canadian schools to facilitate entry.