Increasing Number of Deportees Are Indians
- By Bobby Castro
- Published 11/8/2011
- National, State, Local
- Unrated
According to latest Australian news, a little over fifteen thousand visas to foreign students have been cancelled. Furthermore, nearly seven thousand holders of student visas are facing deportation. In both instances, the majority of the visa holders are from India.
These figures come from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's annual figures for 2010 to 2011. Despite the appalling numbers, many education consultants and experts from India remain calm. These experts are confident that there are still a majority of Indian students who comply with the visa requirements set in Australia and do not worry about deportation. These steps are just ways for the Australian government to weed out low quality education service providers to improve benefits for international students in the long run.
According to Harmeet Pental, current Regional Director for South Asia of IDP education, "The visa cancellations have primarily hit Indian students in vocational education training (VET) in Australia who have violated their student visa terms. In some cases, the visas had expired rather than being cancelled. Many Indians joined courses only as a means of getting permanent residence in Australia and were not genuine students."
The group reported that nearly 8,000 of the can
celled student visas were due to visa expirations when the time period for them ran out. He added, "Students need to ensure they don't get into such a situation. Among the visas which were genuinely cancelled by DIAC, over 2,200 occurred because the students withdrew from the courses."
The goal of the DIAC with the new stringent rules and the crackdown is to smoothen the student-immigration process as well as reform existing programs in order to make the travel for genuine students, regardless of country of origin. New programs are being instituted based on the recent review made by New South Wales Minister Michael Knight. The recommendations from the review panel will take effect starting the first two quarters of 2012.
The findings of the panel include the end of the mandatory cancellation of student visas for poor attendance in class, poor grades during their enrolled classes and working in excess of hours allowed by their respective programs. When these are the instances brought up for review with the DIAC, each specific case would be reviewed based on the factual circumstances behind it.
Until such time, the DIAC will continue its crackdown on student visa violators. The numbers though are quite deceiving since the biggest number of student visa holders in Australia right now are from India, the large numbers of cancelled visas from India should come as no surprise.
These figures come from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's annual figures for 2010 to 2011. Despite the appalling numbers, many education consultants and experts from India remain calm. These experts are confident that there are still a majority of Indian students who comply with the visa requirements set in Australia and do not worry about deportation. These steps are just ways for the Australian government to weed out low quality education service providers to improve benefits for international students in the long run.
According to Harmeet Pental, current Regional Director for South Asia of IDP education, "The visa cancellations have primarily hit Indian students in vocational education training (VET) in Australia who have violated their student visa terms. In some cases, the visas had expired rather than being cancelled. Many Indians joined courses only as a means of getting permanent residence in Australia and were not genuine students."
The group reported that nearly 8,000 of the can
The goal of the DIAC with the new stringent rules and the crackdown is to smoothen the student-immigration process as well as reform existing programs in order to make the travel for genuine students, regardless of country of origin. New programs are being instituted based on the recent review made by New South Wales Minister Michael Knight. The recommendations from the review panel will take effect starting the first two quarters of 2012.
The findings of the panel include the end of the mandatory cancellation of student visas for poor attendance in class, poor grades during their enrolled classes and working in excess of hours allowed by their respective programs. When these are the instances brought up for review with the DIAC, each specific case would be reviewed based on the factual circumstances behind it.
Until such time, the DIAC will continue its crackdown on student visa violators. The numbers though are quite deceiving since the biggest number of student visa holders in Australia right now are from India, the large numbers of cancelled visas from India should come as no surprise.
Bobby Castro
Bobby Castro is the online editor at the NRI community, where he has published a number of articles about NRI Indians living in Australia and many other topics.
View all articles by Bobby Castro