Increase in Indian visa applications for Australia

Updated on: Wednesday, July 22, 2009

New Delhi: The Australian govt concerned at country's reputation as an education provider,because India is regarded as a major migration of skilled labour.

Even as the Australian government has sent three delegations to India in a month to mend its reputation as a 'safe education destination' after the spate of attacks on Indian students Down Under since May, there has been no decline in the number of visa applicants from India.

In fact, June saw an increase of eight per cent over May in visa applications from India, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Evans said.

'The reporting in India has been very damaging to Australia.' As a case in point, he cited the latest reports of two Indian students sustaining minor injuries in a scuffle in Wollongong in Sydney. Investigations revealed that they were Saudis, he said.

Asserting that the attacks on Indians were not racist, Mr. Evans said the incidents were a manifestation of various social issues relating to housing and transport, besides the students inability to focus on education because they had to pay back huge loans.

Conceding that there are loopholes in the Australian immigration system which allows education agents to market courses in cooking and hair-dressing as a short-cut to Permanent Residency (PR), the Minister said there were 'perverse incentives.'

Australia has a system of awarding points to particular job classifications for migration purposes. 'Currently, the scheme awards some occupations like cooking and hair-dressing far too higher than a Bachelor of Science.'

The government, he said, had announced a review of this system, which sometimes resulted in good students opting for the cheaper, shorter, lower skill course because they got PR quicker.

As part of the process of tightening the immigration laws, the government would introduce a job readiness test from the next year to verify if applicants have the skills they claim.

This, Mr. Evans said, would hopefully have a trickle-down effect on education providers because if their students failed to clear this test, it would be a reflection on the institutions training them. 'This should help clean up that segment of education providers who are selling a certificate but not giving good education.'

Increase in Indian visa applications for Australia

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