Sikh student becomes 20th Indian victim in Oz

[prithvi.k]

Sikh student becomes 20th Indian victim in Oz
July 01, 2009

Melbourne: In yet another racial attack on Indian students in Australia, a 22-year-old Sikh youth was assaulted by a group of six teenagers, who tried to remove his turban and cut his hair.

Resham Singh, a student of hospitality who came from Punjab six months ago, became the 20th victim within a month, when he was attacked at Dandenong station here on Monday.

Singh, who could not speak English properly, explained in Punjabi: “They first abused me and left and then again came back with more people and also got a pair of scissors along with them. They tried to remove my turban and cut my hair.

“My friends tried to save me,” he said, adding, “education agents back in India never gave me any information of how hard life will be here.”

Victoria police confirmed the arrest of the two persons. “The youths from Dandenong, aged 13 and 15 years, were charged with intentionally causing serious injury, recklessly causing serious injury and assault in company,” a police spokesperson said.

 

[prithvi.k]

‘Oz govt is hiding details of foreign students’ death’


Of the 54 students, half were Indian; 34 are said to have died of ‘unknown causes’; OZ daily says coroners trying to suppress details

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July 03, 2009
Melbourne: About 54 overseas students, nearly half of them Indians, died of various causes in Australia last year, but coroners were trying to suppress the details of the deaths, a leading daily here reported Wednesday.

The report in The Age, which comes amid a series of racial attacks targeting Indian students in Australia, claimed the toll is higher than the federal government has admitted.

State and territory coroners, under the National Coroners Information System (NCIS), have refused an application by the daily for data on deaths of overseas students in the year to November 2008, the paper said.

A spokeswoman for Victorian Coroner Jennifer Coate said the information would not be made public because it was not exhaustive. “The nationality and occupation of someone who has died is not required to be automatically recorded,” she said.

The refusal came after the NCIS previously indicated that the information would be made available, the report said.

In February, under questioning in Parliament, the government said 51 overseas students died in that year, with 34 dying of “unknown” causes.

Fourteen cases were cited as accidents and three as death from illness.

But an investigation by The Age has established the death toll is higher than 51 — around 54 — with most coming from India, Korea and China. Nearly half were Indians, the report said, adding, Indians were holding one-fifth of the total student visas at that time.

 

[Justpunjabi]

hummmmm.