Naomi* is an Australian fashion industry recruiter, currently based out of Singapore, who hires people for a luxury brand from South East Asia and Australia.
A few months ago, she received a disturbing email from an unidentified source threatening her to hire people only with an Indian background living in Australia.
“Next time when you see a resume with an Indian name, it will be much safer to call him in for interview. Otherwise, you better be wearing a gas mask interviewing local people at this time of the year: locals are full of germs”, one of the emails read.
SBS Punjabi has previously reported on Australia-based recruiters receiving emails to hire Indians only. But those seemed targeted at recruiters with an Indian name.
So was sending similar emails to Naomi an anomaly? Perhaps not, according to her husband Ben* who told SBS Punjabi that his wife is half-Indian.
Initially, Naomi chose to ignore the emails "assuming they were being sent by a disgruntled job applicant who’d eventually stop", but to her surprise the emails kept coming and slowly even escalated into veiled threats wrapped in sarcasm.
All the emails have been sent from different bogus addresses ending with .com.au.
A screenshot of one of the emails Naomi received Source: Supplied
As reported earlier by SBS Punjabi, Melbourne-based Gagan Grover had received a similar threat from an unknown email address asking him "why he wasn’t recruiting more Indians".
Mr Grover works as the general manager of marketing operations with Deakin University in Melbourne.
Gagan Grover Source: Supplied
He was asked to pay more attention to Indian caste hierarchy while recruiting.
The latest email received by Naomi even references the recent basketball brawl between Australia and Philippines, citing that as a reason not to hire Australians and Filipinos.
The email goes on to say "Everyone knows Australians rape children and their priests cover it up", before extolling the virtues of Indian workers.
The couple can't understand this chain of emails which Naomi has received over the past weeks and months.
A snapshot of an email received by Naomi Source: Supplied
"They are escalating into thinly veiled threats. Very weird and I can't really think what the sender's angle is," Ben told SBS Punjabi.
If you have experienced anything similar please contact the SBS Punjabi team on punjabi.program@sbs.com.au
* Surname withheld as per the interviewees' request.
