Melbourne: Australia on Tuesday promised a zero
tolerance approach on dealing with alleged migration and
education scams after a TV channel expose claimed that many
foreign students, including Indians, were being "duped" of
thousands of dollars by dubious agents and colleges.
The 'Four Corners' programme of ABC News reported last
night that hundreds of private colleges in Australia were
offering courses such as hairdressing and cooking, luring
Indian students with false promises of permanent residency.
The channel, which conducted a sting operation, also
claimed that a number of migration agents were offering "fake"
work experience certificates to students.
An Indian journalist working undercover with ABC to
expose the alleged scams was threatened and punched by an
unidentified man over the weekend, an incident which has
sparked an outrage in India.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the scams of ripping
off foreign students would be looked into by immigration and
education authorities and dealt with "no tolerance".
Speaking from Singapore, Smith told the ABC channel "Of
course it's very concerning on both fronts."
"On the migration front, when we were in Opposition we
did express significant concerns about the regulation of
migration agents, and as a consequence we've recently seen a
migration regulatory authority come into existence to regulate
that industry better," Smith said.
"But any of these abuses, of course, we won't tolerate
and don't tolerate. And the cracking down, so far as the
migration agents' regulatory arrangements are concerned, will
assist in that process," Smith said.
The 'Four Corners' programme said migration agents told
the undercover reporter that she could buy a fake English
language certificate needed to gain residency for between USD
2,400-4,100.
The ABC said it has evidence that several agents were
offering to help students cheat in English proficiency tests
and provide fake experience certificates.
The report also claimed Indian students aspiring to be
pilots have been left in the lurch by a Sydney-based aviation
college as their dreams of acquiring commercial pilot license
remained unfulfilled even after paying thousands of dollars.
The expose were the latest to hit Australia's USD 14.2
billion international student sector -- the nation's third
largest export earner -- after 22 racially motivated attacks
on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney in over a month.
Migration Institute of Australia (MIA), a professional
association of migration service providers, today strongly
urged the government to improve the existing regulation
framework which it said was not good enough.
"The big issue facing us at the moment isn't the people
that are currently being regulated, but what we haven't got is
any real action when someone steps outside of the regulatory
framework and is acting illegally," MIA CEO Maurene Horder
said in a statement.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 19:29