India鈥檚 envoy to Ottawa says Canadians need to rebuild the country鈥檚 brand as a destination for bright minds, lamenting that a number of international students have died after being exploited.

High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma told the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations that exploitation is undermining the role Indian students in Canada play in helping both countries advance their technological knowledge.

Canada鈥檚 international student program has come under intense scrutiny after a sharp rise in study permits in recent years, leading the federal government to implement a two-year cap on foreign student admissions.

Last year, there were more than one million international students in Canada.

India is the top source of those students, but Verma says there are bogus schools who have 鈥渄uped鈥� Indian families, sometimes with tragic consequences.

Verma says some students died after being exploited, though he did not specify whether he was referring to deaths by suicide.

He told the Tuesday afternoon forum that students often have a lot on the line.

鈥淢any of them come from a poor family; their parents would sell their lands and farm and animals for them to come here. And when they are duped by unethical 鈥� educational outlets, that creates quite a sensation in India,鈥� Verma said.

鈥淭here was a time when we were sending one body bag of an Indian international student every 10 days. And as an ambassador, you can imagine what I would feel in my heart.鈥�

Canadian universities and colleges have turned to international student recruitment to supplement shortfalls in provincial funding.

However, that鈥檚 come at the expense of desperate students who often take out loans or rely heavily on their family to pay for their studies in Canada.

The Canadian Press reported last week that at Conestoga College, many international students are working full-time hours to make ends meet.

Meanwhile, students who can鈥檛 find work are anxious about their financial situation. Some are even questioning their decision to come to Canada.

A Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C., reported earlier this year that it was aware of more than three dozen students from India who had died in Canada since 2021, the majority due to drug overdoses.

On Tuesday, Verma said that he has encouraged Indian students who have been living for a year or two in Canada to take to social media and explain the real challenges they face 鈥� and focus on how they overcame those problems.

鈥淭hose videos are doing rounds on various social media 鈥� and many of the Indian parents have learned from that,鈥� he said.

Verma added that this outreach needs to be in multiple languages because parents 鈥渉ave got the key say (in) whether the student comes to Canada鈥� and need a realistic sense of what their child will face.

鈥溾�楤rand Canada鈥� got a bad name in education,鈥� he said, arguing Canadians need to restore their country鈥檚 reputation as a good place to study.

READ ALSO:

READ ALSO: