The English Montreal School Board is in some hot water after several students in South Korea complained about the experience in Montreal.
The students told a major news outlet in South Korea they came to Canada as part of a program with their local government to receive vocational training abroad. The international students said they paid tens of thousands of dollars to enrol in the ESMB programs.
The seven students claim to have been promised visas so they could work and support themselves, however those visas never came and they were forced to work illegally for as little as $6 per hour.
Upon hearing the story, the EMSB released a statement "emphatically distancing" itself from the accounts.
Board spokesperson Michael Cohen said the students and school board were duped by a recruiting agent the EMSB had used in the part. The agent is said to have used the EMSBKorea.com, a domain the EMSB said they do not own.
"These particular students that the story refers to originally were going to come to the EMSB for vocational training, but through this agent, in the end, decided to come here for other educational options. They were refunded all their money, so we were not responsible for them at all," Cohen told CTV Montreal.
Cohen said the EMSB has ceased relations with the agent and is working with local government in South Korea to get to the bottom of the incident.