More than a hundred Indian students have been violently attacked this year in Melbourne, Australia. Most victims of these vicious attacks by Australian goons are poor students enrolled in private colleges with little knowledge of English language and even less idea about behaving in a Westernised, foreign country. They must earn money locally to support themselves, repay their debts, probably support their families in India and try to get PR (Permanent Residence) in Australia. The attacks geneerated a great deal of bad media coverage in India and the Australian government swung into action for damage control.
Many students go to Australia and work their bones off, typically for 18-20 hours a day for small Indian businessmen at slave labour rates, to pay back the loan sharks in India and have little money left for renting a room in a decent part of town. So they move to the cheapest and most dangerous parts of Melbourne and are forced to travel on the last train home at midnight which no local resident would even dare. As soft targets, they get abused racially and attacked by Aussie criminals and drug addicts. All this results in social isolation, depression, alcoholism and in many cases, prostitution for female students.
So how did they get to Australia in the first place? Some greedy Indians down under spotted an opportunity to make big money a few years ago as the numbers of Indian students rose from 11,000 to 97,000 while an acute shortage of unskilled labour existed due to a buoyant economy. Hardly any of these colleges have professional courses for accountancy, engineering, computer science or the sciences. No such college is registered with the University of Melbourne, Monash University or any other reputable university. The faculty is hardly creditworthy as many teach in Indian languages because they do not know enough and all students do not understand English!
How do these sub-standard colleges get government approval? Australia has a shortage of civil servants as one government employee has to perform the job of up to ten. So most of these approvals are on line as the applicant is supposed to be responsible for the accuracy of the information. If proved otherwise, the penalties are severe. The college owners rent a couple of rooms in an imposing buildings of central Melbourne and register a college on line for teaching hairdressing, Indian cookery, hotel management and so on. Renting an impressive hall, they bring in a white Australian lecturer and collect some white and Indian students to listen in. The college venue and the lectures in progress are photographed and uploaded on their website to lure unsuspecting students.
All these colleges have an aggerssive agent network in India. Their agents recruit students under false premises by showing them brochures and websites. They promise a highly paid part-time job to repay their loan and a recognised degree for PR in Australia. The agents assist these prospective students to commit fraud by getting some one else take the English language tests, required for obtaining an Australian visa, for Rs 150,000.
Once they arrive in Melbourne, they are shocked at their ‘colleges’. They find jobs as waiters, petrol station attendants, security guards, cleaners and violate immigration permission of 20 hours work per week. Since they hardly attend any classes held in rooms away from the city, they pay between A$500 to A$1,000 to other students to work on their academic assignments. Most cookery colleges tie up with Indian restaurants that have mushroomed recently. These restaurants pay a pittance for their labour and allegedly charge colossal sums to issue false certificates of experience. After the recent incidents, about 60 ex-students were notified to prove genuineness of their certificates.
After these attacks, the Aussie authorities have swung into action. The police is more responsive to these attacks, charging the assailants and establishing a 24-hour helpline. The Aussie authorities have imposed stricter visa norms like an oral test and introduce orientation before leaving India. A crack down on private colleges closed some of them. Indian government will from now onwards register all students before they leave for studies abroad.
Thus the four entities – the Australia and the Indian governments, the sub-standard private colleges and the local Indians in Melbourne – have all made special efforts to stop these attacks with positive results.
About the Author:
Editor, Author, Special Correspondent, Publisher,Media Consultant, Kul Bhushan specialises in writing on NRI (Non Resident Indians) affairs. He has worked for a UN agency and travelled to over 50 countries. He has authored 26 books.A disciple of the enlightened master,Osho. For more articles on NRI by Kul Bhushan, visit www.kulbhushan.net.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Indian Students Attacked in Melbourne, Who’s to Blame?
