Delhi urges students in Australia to be 'alert to their own security'

Sydney: India has told its nationals studying in Australia to take security precautions after attacks in Melbourne, including the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old student in the city four days ago.

The government "advises Indian students studying in Australia as well as those planning to study there, that they should take certain basic precautions in being alert to their own security," the Ministry of External Affairs said on its website.

Students should avoid travelling alone at night, keep to well-lit and populated areas and not carry more cash than what is required, the statement said.

Attacks on Indian students in May and June last year in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, prompted Australian federal and state ministers to travel to New Delhi in an effort to allay concerns.

Big money

Australia earns $13.9 billion annually from teaching overseas students, the nation's third-biggest source of foreign income.

There are 120,569 Indians studying in Australia, representing 19.1 per cent of all international students, the second-biggest nationality after those from China, according to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The number jumped 27.5 per cent as of November 2009 from a year earlier.

The number of Indians arriving in Australia to study is expected to fall 21 per cent in 2010 based on visa applications, the Australian government's Tourism Forecasting Committee said in a December report as the economic slowdown, competition and attacks sap interest.

"The recent spurt in violence may deter even more people," said Gautam Gupta, spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students of Australia.

"We are trying hard to get an acknowledgement from the government that there is a problem. The government is not willing to accept that."

As of November last year in Melbourne, there were 56,531 Indian students enrolled, the biggest non-Australian group in Victoria. A total of 28,255 Indian students are in New South Wales, the second-biggest group after Chinese.

Positive experience

While most Indian students have a positive experience of living and studying in Australia, incidents of assault and robbery have increased in recent months, affecting "not only Indian students, but also members of the larger Indian community.

About 100 attacks on Indians, including students, have been reported from Australia in the past year.

Australia is a "safe place for foreign students to study and Melbourne has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world," the office of Trade and Acting Foreign Minister Simon Crean, said Wednesday.