Shocking details of betrayal and overseas exploitation of Punjabis by well-settled Punjabi immigrants are emerging, which have potentially driven 28-year-old Simranjeet Singh from Patti in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district to allegedly commit suicide. Singh was run over by an approaching train in Brampton, Canada, last month in October.
A young Punjabi migrant’s dream of building a better future in Canada ended in tragedy after he allegedly encountered a series of exploitative employers, financial setbacks, and prolonged uncertainty over his immigration status, according to his family. After performing his last rites in Canada, his friends and relatives are now raising funds for his family back home.
Simranjit, who had traveled to Canada on an employer-specific work permit backed by a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), reportedly discovered soon after landing in British Columbia that the company sponsoring his employment did not appear to exist. Details have emerged that despite having paid a substantial amount to secure the LMIA-based work permit, Simranjit found himself without the job he had been promised.
No representative of the sponsoring company came to receive him at the airport. He subsequently went to stay with a friend and, after making inquiries, discovered that the company named in his employment documents was allegedly not operating. With no genuine employer to report to, his prospects of gaining Canadian work experience appeared uncertain. He eventually moved to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), where he found employment with a trucking company and obtained a truck driver’s license. However, what was expected to be a fresh start allegedly turned into another difficult experience. The family claimed that the owner of the trucking company withheld his wages, leaving nearly $15,000 in unpaid dues. His maternal uncle intervened and spoke to the company management to settle the matter.
Following the discussions, the company reportedly paid him between $2,000 and $3,000, but a substantial amount of his hard-earned wages remained unpaid. Simranjit eventually left the company. He later moved to Ottawa, where he worked with an e-commerce company for a few months before returning to the GTA. He subsequently joined a trucking company based in Windsor. The family alleged that even this employment arrangement did not provide him with the financial stability he had hoped for. Immigration uncertainty added to his distress.
With a loan of over Rs 25 lakh to pay, financial difficulties were compounded by uncertainty over his immigration status. According to the family, Simranjit had arrived in Canada on a work permit but continued to struggle to secure clarity about his future in the country. In an attempt to find a way forward, he consulted an immigration lawyer and subsequently filed a refugee claim (asylum application).
The family maintained that they had not received any clear information about the outcome of the application and believed the matter was still under process. However, information subsequently shared by a person associated with his employment suggested that Simranjeet had learned through his lawyer that his refugee claim had been rejected. The family alleged that the lawyer had accepted money but failed to communicate important developments in the case in a timely manner. When Simranjeet approached the lawyer seeking an update, he was allegedly informed that his immigration status had already expired and was asked to pay additional money.
These developments, along with his earlier experiences with employers and other individuals whom the family accused of taking money from him without providing the promised assistance, reportedly deepened his financial and emotional distress. Despite the mounting difficulties, Simranjeet rarely spoke about his problems with his family back home, said his friends. It was after his death that the family learned about the mental trauma he was going through. His friends said that he was reluctant to burden his parents, who had already incurred debt to finance his journey to Canada. Having invested a substantial amount in securing an LMIA-based work permit and sending him abroad, his parents had placed considerable hopes in his future.
Returning home without achieving the financial stability he had set out to secure was, perhaps, a prospect he found difficult to confront. The family believes he continued to deal with mounting financial pressures, uncertainty over his immigration status, and the emotional burden of repeated disappointments, largely on his own. On October 23, after preparing his meal in the evening, Simranjit reportedly took a bus to a station in Mississauga.
In a tragic turn of events, he died by suicide after jumping in front of an approaching train. This is not the story of Simranjeet alone; many young immigrants going to greener pastures share a similar ordeal of finding themselves caught between questionable recruitment arrangements, alleged wage theft, and complicated immigration procedures.