Documents from New Zealand’s Immigration Department show Indian students threatened self-harm, many of them without a proper shelter and forced to sleep hungry due to financial hardships.
NZ opposition party Labour has secured the documents under the Official Information law which talk about the “facilitation triangle” of the agents, education providers and high-risk employers.
Student visas in NZ require $15,000 a year for living costs in addition to the tuition fees, which is administered by ANZ bank’s Funds Transfer Scheme. Indian and Sri Lankan students can withdraw up to $1,250 in a month to meet their expenses.
Newshub reports that the released documents show that ANZ was reviewing the system.
Immigration New Zealand’s Mumbai operations manager Dan Smidt wrote in an email that the bank regularly received calls that Indian students threatening self-harm.
"[ANZ] have indicated they regularly receive calls from Indian students threatening self-harm, stating they are sleeping in cars, are hungry and have no access to food, and therefore need funds released urgently."
In his email, Mr Smidt said education providers should be made aware of the difficulties faced by the students and they should fulfil their duty of pastoral care.
International students in NZ automatically get a one-year post-study work visa, a model described as a “low-quality, high volume rather than high quality” by another Mumbai-based official of Immigration NZ.
New Zealand’s opposition Labour Party is now using these documents to back up their immigration policy that proposes cuts of up to 30,000 in migration intake every year.
The party says international education should be about delivering quality education to the world rather than a “vehicle for people to gain a backdoor to live in New Zealand”.
