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Australia
gets tough |
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CANBERRA:
Australian authorities have cracked down on education courses being used
by foreigners as a front to get into the country with over 5,000 overseas
students thrown out in nine months for not attending classes or working
illegally. The
expulsions come as Australia clamps down on illegal immigration, joining
forces with regional neighbours to combat organised gangs of people
smugglers profiting from human cargo.
The number of visas granted to students offshore has surged in recent years, with 75,594 visas handed out in the year to June 30, 2001, a 16 percent jump on a year earlier, creating a A$4 billion (US$2.2 billion) a year business in Australia. Most of these went to students in nearby Asian countries, with 14 percent from China, eight percent each from Malaysia and Hong Kong, six percent from Japan and five percent from Thailand. But suspicious authorities tightened up reporting rules a year ago and have found that thousands of so-called students are not attending classes but working in brothels, on building sites and in cafes and restaurants. An Immigration Department spokesman said 5,152 student visas were cancelled between July 2001 and March this year because conditions were breached. He had no breakdown on nationality. "When a visa is cancelled, they have to leave the country," the spokesman told Reuters. This was a significant jump from the year ending June 30, 2001, when 3,838 visas were cancelled - 4.4 percent of the total granted - with 18 percent of offenders from Vietnam, 16 percent from India and 13 percent from both Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In contrast, Denmark, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada and Switzerland had student visa cancellation rates of less than one percent. Under Australian rules, an overseas student must attend at least 80 percent of classes otherwise their names are forwarded to immigration officials, and they cannot work more than 20 hours a week although this is harder to police. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the higher number of visa cancellations suggested the new regime was working but the system would remain under review. "People were using student visas as a means of getting into the country and then working illegally," said the spokesman. "But so far there is nothing to suggest it is a mass scam like what the people smugglers in Indonesia are running." - Reuters
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