India Issues Advisory After Australia Student Attacks

Updated on: Wednesday, January 06, 2010

India told its nationals studying in Australia to take security precautions after attacks in Melbourne, including the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old student in the city four days ago.

The government advises Indian students studying in Australia as well as those planning to study there, that they should take certain basic precautions in being alert to their own security, the Ministry of External Affairs said on its Web site.

Students should avoid traveling alone at night, keep to well-lit and populated areas and not carry more cash than what is required, the statement said.

Attacks on Indian students in May and June last year in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, prompted Australian federal and state ministers to travel to New Delhi in an effort to allay concerns. Australia earns A$15.5 billion ($13.9 billion) annually from teaching overseas students, the nations third-biggest source of foreign income.

There are 120,569 Indians studying in Australia, representing 19.1 percent of all international students, the second-biggest nationality after those from China, according to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The number jumped 27.5 percent as of November 2009 from a year earlier.

The number of Indians arriving in Australia to study is expected to fall 21 percent in 2010 based on visa applications, the Australian government's Tourism Forecasting Committee said in a December report as the economic slowdown, competition and attacks on Indian students sap interest.

The recent spurt in violence may deter even more people, Gautam Gupta, spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, said in an interview. We are trying hard to get an acknowledgement from the government that there is a problem. The government is not willing to accept that.

As of November last year in Melbourne, there were 56,531 Indian students enrolled, the biggest non-Australian group in Victoria state. A total of 28,255 Indian students are in New South Wales state, the second-biggest group after Chinese.

While most Indian students have a positive experience of living and studying in Australia, incidents of assault and robbery have increased in recent months, affecting not only Indian students, but also members of the larger Indian community in Australia, the ministry in New Delhi said.

About 100 attacks on Indians, including students, have been reported from Australia in the past year, the Indian government said in a statement issued on Dec. 3.

Australia is a safe place for foreign students to study and Melbourne has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world, the office of Trade and Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean, said in an e-mailed statement today. Advisories for Indian students traveling to Australia are a matter for the Indian government.

India two days ago condemned the Jan. 2 killing of student Nitin Garg and asked Australian authorities to bring those responsible to justice as soon as possible. Australian government ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, condemned the attack.

Police in New South Wales identified a partially burned body found by a roadside as 25-year-old Indian national Ranjodh Singh, The Daily Telegraph reported today. Police appealed to residents of the town of Griffith for information, including the local Indian population.

India Issues Advisory After Australia Student Attacks

More Education news