36 overseas students in detention
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Article from: The Australian
THIRTY-SIX overseas students, some as young as 18, are being held in immigration detention for breaching study visa conditions.
Theinfringements include not passing subjects and poor attendance -although the Immigration Department insists that none of the detainedstudents was locked up solely for failing to meet course requirements.
The Australian has established that 19 of those detained are agedbetween 18 and 21. The average period of detention is 81 days.
Critics of the detention system say the presence of so many studentsin immigration custody shows that the Rudd government's policy ofdetention as a last resort is not working.
Some 2646 overseas students have been detained since January 2001, government figures reveal.
Most of the student visa holders being held are from China, butothers come from India and Pakistan - countries already sensitive aboutthe treatment of their student nationals in Australia.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship said student visaholders currently in detention had posed an unacceptable risk to thecommunity, or had repeatedly refused to comply with visa conditions.
A student visa can be cancelled for a variety of reasons, includingfailure to meet course requirements such as "passing subjects" and"attending class".
A department spokesperson said most of those in detention hadoverstayed their visas. None had been locked up "simply for breachingattendance requirements or failing to meet minimum courserequirements", although these could be factors in non-compliance withvisa conditions.
Attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney have trainedinternational attention on the treatment of overseas students inAustralia.
The Australian revealed yesterday that the $15 billion educationexport industry was riven with scams and corruption mainly amongunregulated agents in India.
Bangladesh-born Motahar Hussein, 36, was detained for three years inSydney's Villawood immigration lock-up after missing an officialimmigration notice because of what he says was a mix-up over access tohis post box.
He is now a resident, but remains concerned that the "tools of themachine" to potentially victimise some students endure in theimmigration system.
Mr Hussein said he continued to have counselling for trauma arising from his time in detention.
As for those who remained there, he said: "They will be depressedand highly frustrated. They won't be able to comprehend that they havedone anything wrong by overstaying as the concept of detention doesn'toccur in many Asian societies."
Migration Institute of Australia chief executive Maurene Horder saidLabor had made detention more humane, but the number of student visaholders in custody "suggests we may have a way to go".
"Some overstay deliberately or inadvertently, but for young peoplecarried away with lifestyle, their legal status is not paramount intheir minds, and we know they often don't have a high level ofguardianship or parental support," she said.
University of NSW immigration detention researcher Leanne Weber saidit was "disturbing" that young students were still being detaineddespite recommendations from a Senate committee in 2006 urging moreflexibility and compassion, and ministerial directives restricting theuse of detention.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25784268-601,00.html |
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