Students' deaths in the spotlight

1 Jul 2009, 8:03 pm   -   Source: SBS
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This week the Indian Supreme Court directed its government to investigate the deaths of Indian students in Australia.

This week the Indian Supreme Court directed its government to investigate the deaths of Indian students in Australia.

The ongoing negative publicity in India about the safety of overseas students has the Australian government concerned.

A cross party Australian parliamentary delegation is in the Indian capital trying to allay potential damage to Australia's multi million dollar export market.

"We don't want the only view of Australia to be some terrible and tragic incidents that we've condemned. We are very generally a safe society," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.

"We welcome not just Indian students, but all students from other countries".

Student bodies are concerned that government figures show more than 50 overseas students died in Australia over a recent 12 month period....34 of them from "unknown causes".

No details of the deaths have been released.

A Victorian Coroner's spokesperson says it's not supressing the information, but says that the details are not exhaustive enough to be accurate.

"The damage has been done, so the government is going to get no brownie points for being seen to be suppressing facts," David Barrow, from the National Union of Students said.

"This government can change the way in which we treat international students and I think overseas governments and parents will recognise that...but they have to spend their way out of it, not spin their way out of it," he added. 

The Indian Students Federations says that for years it's been calling for more disclosure over student deaths.

"We would strongly request the government to take a human approach to this matter, " the Federations' Gautam Gupta said. 

"Understand that families are involved here.

"Put a closure to these things. If someone has died, the family needs to know why they have died and they need to understand that the whole community is doing whatever we can to protect and prevent such things happening in the future".

Australia's Senate Inquiry into the treatment and welfare of international students is underway and due to report back in November.

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