Hope for two Nigerian students in Canada facing deportation

Reprieve is coming the way of two Nigerian students as the Canadian Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney look to adjust international student regulations so that the two University of Regina student be allowed to remain in the country.

The proposed new changes include allowing foreign student to work part-time off campus without a work permit, which is what the two Nigerian students Victoria Ordu and Ihuoma Amadi were caught doing in 2011(Amadi was working full-time).  Both were ordered to leave Canada for one year, but have instead been hiding out in Regina churches since last year.

The students legal counsel, Kay Adebogun, with support from a parliamentarian, MP Ralph Goodale, has argued that that if the rules governing off-campus work are relaxed, Amadi and Ordu should be allowed to remain and return to school.

However, further complicating the situation for the Nigerian students is the fact that Ordu's student visa expired in December, while Amadi's visa is good until April 2013.
Both students acknowledged they broke the law, they however maintain they did not know they needed a work permit to work off campus at Walmart.

In another twist, Phillippe Couvrette, a spokesperson with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), said Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews is the one to grant the reprieve for Amadi and Orlu, and not Kenney.