Melbourne, October 27: With incidents of attacks on Indians here on the rise, many community members feel the root cause of such assaults is not race but the students’ financial conditions that force them to be out at night for odd jobs to meet high cost of living in Australia.
Many Indians in Australia feel students from India should be “alert” and “careful” if they travelling at odd hours in the night.
“It is not the race that is the problem but it is their hard financial conditions,” Ravi Bhatia, Primus CEO and a leading community member, said reacting to the latest attack in which a 22-year old Sikh was attacked while he was asleep at a bus stop.
“What makes you sleep at that time at a bus stop. Are you not inviting problems by doing so?” he asked.
“Students as a migrants have some obligations also and they should take basic safety measures,” he said. Srinivas Vasan, Federation of Indian Association of Victoria (FIAV), said Australia is the most multicultural society and has allowed people from all over the world to live here peacefully.
Over 30 Indian students were attacked in various Australian cities from June to September.
–Agencies