Canada warns India company over fake visas

TORONTO, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A private airline in India has been warned it will be banned from flying into Canada because of a surge of fake passports and visas being allowed through.

Jet Airways was warned of the ban after Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Service Agency said they detected "dozens" of passengers arriving at Toronto's international airport with obviously-doctored passports, the Toronto Star reported Tuesday.

Jet Airways flies daily from Indian cities with a layover in Brussels before continuing to Canada. Airline officials said beginning this week, staff in Belgium would be retrained in screening and security, the report said.

Since the first scams were found a year, ago, border agents began using the Internet to check hotel reservations as a tip-off to those intending to seek refugee status using fake documents, a sources told the newspaper.

Many of the reservations were at hotels on the commercial airport strip in Mississauga, the source said.

"If you're spending all that money to travel around the world and come to Canada in November, why would you book a reservation for two weeks on the airport strip?" he said.