EMSB cuts ties with South Korean agent after bad press

CTV Montreal: EMSB says it was duped The school board says it was fooled by a South Korean recruiting agent.

The English Montreal School Board is making headlines in South Korea for all the wrong reasons.

Several students have reportedly come forward to complain about their experience in Montreal.

They claim they had to work illegally after being brought over by an agent linked to the EMSB.

The EMSB claims it has been duped, and is a victim of the agent. The agent used the EMSBKorea.com domain, which the EMSB said does not belong to them.

The seven students shared their stories with a major news outlet in South Korea, where they said they were sent to Canada as part of a program with their local government to receive vocational training.

In some cases, these international students pay tens of thousands of dollars for EMSB's programs.

These students dealt with the recruiting agent, which the EMSB has used in the past. They claim they were promised visas so they could work to support themselves during their stay.

Instead, they say they soon realized they couldn't work here legally, and so the only way they could earn any money was to work illegally for as little as $6 an hour, which is less than minimum wage.

In a news release, the EMSB said it is "emphatically distancing" itself from the accounts.

The EMSB said it is disturbed by these accounts, but has nothing to do with the students’ experience – except that its name was used to deceive them.

“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,” said Michael Cohen, spokesperson for the EMSB. “Perhaps they did come under the guise of EMSBKorea.com but that’s a domain that does not belong to us but was used inappropriately by someone, perhaps for the wrong reasons.”

Cohen said the EMSB has ceased relations with the agent, at least for the time being and its working with the local government in South Korea to find out exactly what happened.