Three men in Victoria who were accused of racially abusing an Indian have been charged with the same, nearly six months after the crime has been committed. The incident happened on February 6, 2010.
Racial vilification charges have been imposed on them after it has been proved that three men were involved in racial and physical abuse of an Indian student when they were traveling in a bus on the route to Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula.
According to reports by AAP, two of them have been charged of encouraging racial hatred which lead to serious injuries and the usage of abhorrent language and physical assault. They have been given legal instructions to appear at the at the Frankston Magistrates Court.
If reports are to be believed, the third culprit is expected to be scrutinized on September 1 as well (the same date on which the two accused are instructed to mark their presence in the court)!
According to Victorian police, courtesy these serious racial vilification occurrence, it has been hoped that a strong signal would be sent to the people in communities that a behavior of such sort won’t be tolerated at all.
News related to racial behavior has come after a long period in attention. Additionally, this is the first occurrence when charges of such kind have been made in front of the court.
Through a recent study, it has been found that around forty five percent of victims of racial discrimination in Britain are Indians. This has also revealed that racial attacks are increasing in Britain and are caused by the government’s attitude towards racism.
By the recent report of “Racial Violence: The Buried Issue” has revealed that around six hundred cases of violent attacks of racial discrimination occurred in the year 2009. It has been observed that some particular groups of people are at greater risk of becoming the victims of racism are mainly asylum seekers, Muslims and people who look like Muslims working as taxi drivers or as delivery boys in small eateries and new migrants.
There are about eight-nine victims of racial attacks who have lost their lives since the killing of a black young boy, Stephen Lawrence in the year 1993. Amongst them around forty five per cent were Asians and ten percent migrant workers. This is a great problem for the foreign students who come to Britain to study or work and have to face harassment and insult which greatly affects their mental and physical health. Racial discrimination provokes them to take serious steps like suicide or they may even go into depression.
The IRR search has observed that racial attacks occur more in the areas like Southall, Tower Hamlet, Hackney and Newham as comparison to other areas. The cases of racial violence are increasing day by day in cities, towns and villages as more migrant employees, foreign students, and asylum seekers are coming to the country. The new IRR report asks the government that how new immigration is the cause for rising racial violence in the country? The country is facing different kinds of racial attacks caused by different regional conditions. Government officials are responsible for this racial violence because of their negligence to local areas which are poor and disadvantaged.
Contrary to Aussie government who are taking ages to perform justice for the victims of the racial attacks, a Canadian employer has been penalized $25,000 for racially abusing his employee, Cheryl Khan, of Pakistani origin.
The employer, Lynn Tompkins, went on to call her a “Paki” and “Nigger” and mocked her children as “half-nigger.” His comments started getting more offensive with each statement as he made a comment on her children, “THAT’S WHAT YOU GET AFTER SLEEPING WITH A NIGGER.”
The Human Rights Commission took quick action on the racial attack, ordered the employer to pay a heavy amount of $25,000 in damages, in addition to the $6,750 in lost wages after the victim was fired last year. Not only this, the employer has been specified to inculcate an anti-harassment policy in his organization too.
The victim said that she informed the Human Rights panel after she found it unbearable to withstand the racial abuses by his employer. Reports say that she joined Lynx Trucking Transportation in the year 2007, and used to bear racial abuses from the starting itself. The employer would shout at her and used to address other South Asian workers as stupid immigrants. When she protested against him, he addressed his own company as “f—ing company.”
Testimonies came from the sides. Some employees favored the victim and confirmed that their boss used to call the South Asian employees as “Stupid or Dump.” While those who were defending their boss affirmed that he never used abusive language.
Taking its own decision, the Human Right Panel imposed a heavy fine on the employer! Australian government should take lessons from this incident as to how officials in power should take quick actions against the culprits of racial attacks!
The recent spate of the recent attacks played a huge role in crashing the number of Indian students planning to study in Australia.
A report by Immigration Department showed that Study Visa Applications for Vocational courses fell to 19,530 during the last three months of the year 2009. In addition, a decline of 15 percent has been noticed in visa applications for all the educational sectors, reported The Age.
In another news piece, Jaspreet Singh, 29, a man of Indian origin, who faked racial attack after showing 15 percent burn injuries, has been charged of claiming fake insurance in shade of being racially attacked.
He deliberately torched his car, as evidences such as container and petrol, amongst others found from his home, confirmed his fakeness after his arrest, stated the Aussie police. Police has also found footage of him, buying petrol, a day before he made the roar of being attacked.
Singh, earlier came out with the statement that a group of attackers set him on fire while he was parking his vehicle. However, this incident should not be linked with the series of attacks on Indians in the past few months. All of them were genuine and government should take ample measures to stop this catastrophe right here!
Also, Indian envoy to Australia, Sijatha Singh, has been called to New Delhi for further discussion of the series of attacks on Indians in Australia.
Various cabbies have been assaulted in the last five days in Australia. This time, the culprits have not been spared by the Australian government. In a recent incident, both the convicts Robert Harvey, who is 25 years old, and Andrew Madden, who is 24 years old, have been arrested for assaulting an Indian taxi driver and produced in court.
The incident occurred recently on Friday when a 23-year old Indian cab driver picked the two passengers but was brutally attacked by them at the intersection of Sparks Rd and the Princes Highway. It has not been confirmed whether the attack was racial or not.
Corio Detective Senior Constable Ben Melis confirmed that the Indian cabbie picked the two passengers from a Plume St address in Norlane. Later, he was assaulted by the passengers, suffered bashing, but was treated by the medical assistants on the site.
Other passersby were quick enough to help the victim. It may be a premeditated attack, performed for the motto of robbery, he further added.
A flurry of racial attacks has been occurring in Australia since last six months or so. Australian government has been showing ample support for the security of Indian students in Australia and has been quick enough in arresting the culprits in every possible way. This time the convicts have been charged with robbery along with the assault related crimes.
Paul John Brogden, 48, the drunken passenger, who was recently accused of attacking an Indian cab driver (http://blog.abhinav.com/attack-in-australia-%E2%80%93-victim-an-india-cabbie/) was sentenced to jail for 3 months. The victim, Satheesh Thatipamula, aged 24, was verbally and physically attacked by the passenger who damaged his cab as the victim escaped major injuries.
A police spokesman recalled the incident and stated that Brogden drank 24 VB stubbies after which he hired a cab at 2 am local time and went into an abusive mode fifteen minutes after hiring the cab. The victim, Satheesh Thatipamula, rushed to the local service station but was followed by Brogden to face more assaults.
Brogden’s lawyer, Philip Lynch, confirmed that an excessive consumption of alcohol left the passenger in no state to recall the events which occurred last night.
Magistrate Michelle Hodgson further said that she has to take into consideration “general deterrence,” while announcing a sentence of three months to the convict. She said that alcohol is real curse for fueling violence in the community.
Various people have offered different opinions on the incident. Reports say that Ballarat detectives believe that the attack on the cab driver has no “racial factor” linked with it. Gautam Gupta, Secretary of the Federation of Indian students in Australia, feels that he is anticipating that the government would take serious actions and act on the hate crime laws like the new Hate Crimes Act.
It is good to see the culprit getting punishment immediately after the incident occurred on the Australian streets!
Despite the recently released Australian Senate committee report on student welfare, no assurance has been committed to the Indian students regarding their safety in the land of Kangaroos. The matter became worse after the brutal death of Nitin Garg, an immigrant of Punjabi origin studying and working in Australia on a part-time basis.
The report elaborated that there are little evidences that the attacks are based on the issue of racism. The report further points out that, foreign students must take care of their personal safety while they are studying in Oz, along with other conclusions that regulations should be tighter; overseas recruitment agents are the root cause for the problem; some amendments in the immigration work conditions should favor individual flexibility; to name a few. The committee has also made the recommendation that international students must be provided with more information on personal safety before they land in Australia.
Also, the Interim Baird review report has blamed the “shonky operators” as the root cause for this problem and suggests the tightening of the Migration rules in future.
Neither of the reports clarified the main cause and solution to this majorly growing problem of “racial attacks” in Australia on a regular basis. Despite of all these reports, measures by government and several reforms, innocent students like Nitin continues to pay the price of being an Indian and studying in a country like Australia! What is the ultimate solution to all this?
The same old story – The attackers are Australian, the issue is racial attack and the victim, as usual, an Indian citizen, this time Nitin Garg, a 21 year-old youth who was brutally stabbed to death by some Oz assailants on Saturday night.
Nitin, originally from Punjab was on his way to a job at joint Hungry Jack’s restaurant in Melbourne, when he was attacked barbarously in the abdomen, his only fault- he was an Indian!
It seems that there is no end to this racial attacks happening in the land of Kangaroos on a regular basis. Students from all over the world enroll themselves in Australian universities to make their future but end up being brutally assaulted by groups of aggressors who leave no scope in making lives hell for them! Is this why parents send their children to Australia?
According to reports, Nitin left his breaths in the Royal Melbourne Hospital, leaving all of us with some debatable queries–
What is the answer to all these racial attacks and who is responsible for this?
Will innocent students like Nitin keep on sacrificing their lives for no reason?
Is “death” the only price for being an Indian in Oz country?
Kapil Sibal, Minister Human Resource Development would be visiting Australia in the month of April to discuss the vital issue of racial attack with Australian authorities.
Issues like these are creating a void in the Immigration world and affecting the decisions of many Immigration Consulting firms, who are also left with ‘unanswered questions’ at the end of the day!
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on his visit to India ensured that Indian students are safe in his country! He further explained that the Australian government is involved in taking all the “physically possible” steps for the safety of all the international students who come from all over the globe to study in Australia.
According to his statement, Indian students are welcome guests in their country and play a critical role in enhancing the “Bilateral Relationship” between the two countries. Rudd further added that students from India are the future of business ventures for both Australia as well as India.
He said that his country is looking forward to improve its engagements with India, which is calculated to be one of the strongest economies of the world in future. Rudd confirmed that the country wants its foreign students to stay together. Also, he is really “disgusted” with these racial attacks and would ensure that these incidents won’t happen again.
With assurance coming in from such a credible source, it seems that Australia is seriously involved in assuring the safety of International students in a major way!
Again a misdeed by few Aussies has hampered the image of Australia in a major way. Despite various attempts and friendly talks, some section or the other is continuously baffling the image of Oz as a country applauded for racial attacks.
A small racial news piece spreads like a fire these days. Recently, a group of Oz skaters abused some Indians near a car park located near Meadowglen International Athletics Stadium. But in this chaos, a common man fails to understand that Australia has always been a country acclaimed for its renowned educational institutions, perfect job opportunities and brilliant cost-of living, to name a few.
People from all over the world migrate to Australia in large number every year. Not only they manage to adjust to the friendly ambiance offered by the country, but go on to weave their career in the best possible way. In addition, students find Aussie Universities as some of the best in the world! If we will have a look at the figures, we will see that a jump of 37.3% has been seen in the number of the Indian students enrolling with Oz Universities, stated Australian Education International.
Therefore, there is no need to panic or rush! Just hire an Immigration expert and make your application a cherry pie for you and your family.
