International student drug deaths in Surrey raise community concerns

Student and religious communities in Surrey are raising concerns, saying more and more Punjabi students are dying from drugs.

Many of them are international students under the age of 30 who come to B.C. to start new lives, meaning when they pass away, the local Gurdwara takes care of their last rites and sends their bodies home.

In an interview with OMNI News, the president of a Surrey Gurdwara says he’s sent six bodies home to grieving families in the past two months.

“One body, actually, when we sent it to India, the cost is $8,000-$9,000. So in two years, we spent $200,000,” Giani Narinder Singh, president of the Dukh Nivaran Gurdwara, explained, adding 80 per cent of the deaths were linked to drugs.

Giani Narinder Singh, president of Dukh Nivaran Gurdwara in Surrey, talks about drug-related deaths among international students and how they have affected the community. (OMNI News Image)

Armaan Dhillon, the student association president at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, says he thinks the move for international students to Canada can be a shocking and isolating experience.

“There are a number of issues which they face, which include the high price of groceries and loneliness from their family members as they live alone. And some even feel a bit away from [society] which somehow adds a lot to their mental health crisis as well,” Dhillon said.

“It’s very, very sad.”

Armaan Dhillon, student association president at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, talks to a reporter about drug-related deaths among international students in Surrey. (OMNI News Image)

He says as some people likely turned to drugs to cope with some of those issues, many did so not knowing what the substances could have been laced with.

“If they’re going towards addiction, sometimes there’s peer pressure, sometimes they want to belong to a community, belong to a group, and they go under that peer pressure. That needs to be addressed,” said Lily Dhadral, employment programs manager at the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society.

Dhadral encourages international students who are struggling in B.C. to reach out for mental health support.

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Meanwhile, B.C.’s Mental Health and Addictions minister told OMNI News on Wednesday that it is trying to find a solution to this problem.

One mental health advocate has a few ideas of where the government can start.

“We need decisive action around safe supply. We need decisive action around multilingual treatment options. We need decisive action around supporting students prior to their immigration to Canada so that consultants do not exploit them, but also support them and guide them on how to settle in Canada,” Kulpreet Singh, founder of South Asian Mental Health Alliance, added.