Instead, an internal Immigration Department report reveals more than 120 professional kabaddi players in a three-year period have either vanished within Canada, applied for refugee status or been able to obtain a work visa.
The kabaddi players, most of whom come from village teams in the Punjab region of India, come to Canada to play for about $50,000 through a season of large tournaments, especially in Surrey but also in Edmonton, Calgary and the Toronto suburb of Brampton, which has a large Punjabi population.