Australia suspends 200 student visa agents for suspected behaviour

To keep a check on genuine student visa agents Australia suspended about 200 agents working in and outside India after the government of Australia received reports of fraudulent applications and low rate of visa approval cases. In order to re-gain the access to the online student visas system, the Australian government has asked the agents to ‘show cause’ and ‘justify’ their behaviour because they are simply meant for helping students with their application procedure to obtain a student visa which allows them a right to live and study in Australia.
The stir by the Australian Government Department is welcomed by the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India (AAERI). Welcoming the decision, The Association President stated, ‘We have been lobbying with the Australian Government to take action against the fraudulent agents in India, as well as to keep a check on the conduct of onshore agents in Australia and also their sub-agents in India.’
The Association President stated, “In addition to this recent crack-down, the AAERI is hoping the government will begin making more thorough checks to make sure international students have the means, in terms of financial capacity, to live in Australia and study at their chosen course”. Inspite of that, there are concerns over a lack of student visa checks to ensure if genuine students are living and studying in Australia through legal means.
In addition to that, The Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans has announced that Australia would ensure the quality of students willing to study in Australia. The authorities would make sure that the student coming to Australia does not have fraud documents and have the financial capacity to live and study in Australia. To address the issue he said, “These measures will reinforce Australia's standing as a high quality education destination for all genuine students". The preventive measures would include upgraded interviews with the students and restricted online access to the Australian e-visa system to only genuine agents.
The Senator further said that the overall student compliance rates remain high. But he acknowledged that there are elements of concern within what is a very large caseload requiring targeted measures such as terminating or suspending agents because of evidence of fraud or poor approval rates to protect the interests of all genuine students. "The Australian Government takes allegations of fraud in the student visa program very seriously", he added.
Apart from that the Australian government is continuing to work with its state counterparts to inspect the universities, colleges and schools to make sure that Australia provides high quality education to every student remaining a top notch education destination.
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