Overseas students held like terrorists

NEARLY 300 overseas students have been thrown into detention centres in Sydney and Melbourne in the past three years after falling foul of Australia's immigration laws.

Documents obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws reveal that in the three years to the end of March, 299 overseas students were put into the Villawood detention centre in Sydney or the Maribyrnong centre in Melbourne. Most were deported and five are still in detention.

University, TAFE and secondary school students from 24 countries were detained. Most came from China, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Of the detainees, 207 were held for overstaying their visas, 30 for attendance breaches, 14 for failing their courses, seven for not starting their courses, four for withdrawing from their courses, one for a work breach and 36 for other reasons.

University of Sydney senior psychology lecturer Christopher Lennings said overseas students could be easily overwhelmed by conditions in Australia, leaving them vulnerable to breaches of migration law. "People's English is not as good, they get overwhelmed, have financial problems or illness. They get depressed and fail their studies, and next thing they know they are on a rollercoaster and have lost control of their lives," he said.

"The trauma period is within a few to 10 days, especially if they don't know how long they would be incarcerated for."

Students who have their visas cancelled -- often for working more than 20 hours a week, for attending less than 80 per cent of scheduled contact hours, for unsatisfactory academic results, for completing a course early, deferring study or transferring to another provider -- become unlawful non-citizens.

Once located, they are usually detained pending removal from Australia, granted a bridging visa or made to arrange their own departure.

Motahar Hussein, a 34-year-old former Charles Sturt University IT student, said he spent almost three years in Villawood after missing an official immigration notice because of a mix-up over access to his postbox.

"I was dealt with very harshly," he told The Australian. "I am not a criminal. I am a student and want to study electrical engineering. People arrested me and put me in a cell like I am a terrorist. My hair still rises on my body thinking about Villawood."

The Australian has learned that a former Bangladeshi university student has been detained for almost three years and one of the 27 Chinese nationals was detained 371 days.

Universities Australia chief executive Glenn Withers said that while illegal residency should be dealt with by deportation, these processes "should minimise the need for detention and ensure a proper allowance for associated refugee claims".

National Liaison Committee president for the country's 250,000 international students, Eric Pang, said it was "shocking to know that it's such a big export industry for Australia, where students are treated as cash cows, yet others are receiving such harsh treatment in detention ... If they overstay they should be deported."

Student detainee advocate Milchaela Rost said she was appalled by the figures and Australia was the only country in the world to detain some full-fee-paying international students.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans recently announced that mandatory detention for overstayers and unlawful non-citizens would only apply in certain circumstances, such as where a person presents a risk to the community, or where there is repeated non-compliance.