‘Night jobs may have exposed Indians to attacks in Australia’

PANAJI - Attacks on Indian students in Australia could be a result of night jobs and rough neighbourhoods they live in, an external affairs ministry official said Monday.

Navneet Suri, a joint secretary with the ministry’s public diplomacy, told reporters during a press conference here that most Indian students in Australia were from a lower middle class strata of society, and ended up doing night jobs in rough downtown areas to make ends meet, and inadvertently exposed themselves to street crime.

“They find it necessary to work and end up with night jobs in rough downtown areas. And, say, after a late night shift at Macdonalds while returning home they are easy prey to anti-social elements,” Suri said, in response to a query from the media on India’s stand on the repeated attacks on Indian students in Australia.

Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh, who was also present, said that most of the attacks on India students happened in the Australian state of Victoria, home to several educational institutions, which lured Indian students with suspect diplomas and hopes of migration to Australia.

Mansingh also said that the spate of attacks had forced both the Australian and Indian government into action.

“On our side, we are trying to make students going to Australia aware. And the Australian government started regulating the college advertising dubious academic degrees,” he said.

“The spate of attacks did derail a strategic initiatives we had going with the Australian government,” Mansingh said.

–Indo Asian News Service