With COVID-19 ripping through India:
An Indian education agent has demanded that Australia open its border to international students:
Navjot Singh, a migration agent based in the northern Indian state of Punjab says policymakers in Australia need to do a lot more than just granting post-study work visa rights to retain its current students.
“Australia’s recent measures have brought it at par with Canada and UK, but the biggest difference in terms of present circumstances is that unlike Australia, UK borders remain open and Canada is also permitting select students under limited conditions – an option that so far isn’t available to Australian students,” he says.
International Education Association of Australia chief executive, Phil Honeywood, has also stepped up pressure on the federal government to open the border to international students:
“I would like to argue that Australia seems to have contained the virus when you see it in terms of a number of deaths and the number of cases, even with the recent Victorian outbreak. So that should put the message globally that Australia is a safe study destination as compared to many other countries like the UK, US or Canada,” he says.
Mr Honeywood adds that these arguments will hold ground only if the Australian government allows jurisdictions to bring back international students as per the initial plans.
“We have to make sure that we get the secure corridor pilot programs up and running very soon which, initially will be launched in Australian Capital Territory and South Australia and maybe Northern Territory for returning international students.
“We are hoping existing students will be allowed to return in the next two or three months and new students by January-February next year”…
The claim of a “secure corridor pilot program” is pure marketing spin. There is no such thing.
The risks of further outbreaks would only multiply with thousands of international students arriving from virus-ridden nations like India.
It only takes a few infected international students to breach quarantine for the entire Australian economy to be put at risk. One only has to look at Melbourne’s disastrous quarantine failure to see the risks.
Australians (Victorians in particular) have not been put under house arrest for months to get COVID-19 under control so that our greedy universities and their captured political mates can bring in thousands of potential virus carriers from overseas, subsidised by taxpayers.
Nor should international students be allowed in before Australians are freely permitted to travel across states and abroad.
Australia’s international border must remain closed to everyone except returning citizens and permanent residents. No exceptions.
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Well as long as those calling for the borders to be opened are there to shake hands with each new arrival then sure why not!
A deep and passionate kiss would be better..
Open their own homes to the new arrivals to quarantine in perhaps.
Well if Canada and the UK are so good Navjot, p1ss off in that general direction.
Yep, if you talk the talk …
Phil deserves his own ‘secure corridor’.
These are ultra low yield imports. Best not bother with this cohort as we are being sent a bunch of misfits and ne’er do wells not very socially adaptable either.
We’re really in trouble when people from Punjabi are the supposed solution.
Does New Zealand have a timeframe for all of this?
“Govt job ad suggests border closures will last two years”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300075633/coronavirus-government-hiring-for-twoyear-positions-in-managed-isolation-and-quarantine-team
Their unemployment level set to remain very low & wages rise it would seem!
But they are planning to bring in international students, to be quarantined for two weeks on arrival.
I know plenty of folks in Adelaide and precisely not one of them is calling for international borders to be opened – if anything they are happy with the current situation there and see little benefit in welcoming people from anywhere that have an ongoing virus issue (and that includes with Oz – let alone South America, SE Asia, the US or India.
I’m in Adelaide and I 100% agree. I even emailed my state and federal MP asking for the borders to remain shut.
Seriously what is Honeywood smoking, or putting into his body??? I want some.
Does he have ANY idea what we are going through here in Vic??? I can’t get fricken acupuncture because of quarantine failures. How many people are suicidal right now because their usual methods of managing their pain levels have been taken away (hydrotherapy pools, physio and other face to face healthcare, acupuncture, swimming, public spa and saunas etc)? How many people are in pain and potentially risking their long-term health through delayed elective surgery? And he wants to bring in some foreign students from really poor countries that are virtually guaranteed to be a net negative for the economy because enough Covid cases will slip through and they’ll compete viciously with Aussies for what little jobs there are because they have to work because our cost of living is so high and they don’t have the money upfront for 3 years of fees and living expenses (not to mention the sisters in Nepal sold into sexual slavery in countries like India so their brother can get into Australia). And don’t forget if they get a job that is more jobseeker for the Aussie that missed out so higher benefits costs.
These people absolutely disgust me. They are abhorrent. Their greed and blindness to the suffering of others that their selfish actions cause is dumbfounding in this age of communication and supposed enlightenment. Just no. Shut up and stop bleating for this ponzi to continue. It is finished (hopefully, fingers crossed, please flying spaghetti monster kill this disgusting trade).
+1
Sing it, Sister.
Won’t somebody think of the acupuncturists!
Like the rest of the paid up shills, he is doing his job perfectly.
Well said Poppy. As a former politician of our great two party system, Phil’s utterly corrupt.
I’m an optimist: this is actually progress – for years they’ve been happy to ruin young Australians’ lives by undermining education and the youth employment market; now they’re being more fair by proposing to ruin older Australians’ lives too!
Open teh gates and increase the rates (of SARS-CoV-2 infection), that will fix teh thing*! (*Hurd immunity not guaranteed)
Also, to correct something Leith said in the article, you do realise that even now travel to Australia is not restricted just to citizens and PR holders?
It is also available to immediate family members of permanent residents. So if an international ‘student’ just got PR, as of right now he can also bring his whole family over too, even though they are not themselves Australian citizens or permanent residents. See eg here: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/information-overseas-travellers-coronavirus-disease-covid-19#who-can-enter-australia-from-overseas
See also here:
https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/immediate-family-australian-citizen-or-permanent-resident
Good news! You are not an Australian citizen or permanent resident – but you don’t even need to apply for an exemption! Come straight on in!
We have to let all those death staring grannies from the sub-continent in, because they contribute so much!
International education agents demand Australia slay its elderly
It’s a nasty job, that much is certain, but I’m slowly shifting over to the “somebody has to do it” camp
Given the choice I’d rather some recent import gets stuck with doing the necessary.
Jimmy likes to study but Jimmy’s goin down….
Who the Fck is this Najot Singh ar$eclown that anybody would pay the slightest bit of notice to his deranged and malicious hooting aimed at nothing but his own profit? He can fck right off, and so can Phil MorningWood behind him.
But they are planning to bring in international students, to be quarantined for two weeks on arrival.
Unless we have clearly defined and definite skill shortages requiring immigration of small numbers to fill those roles, we need no immigration until further notice. It’s simple numbers, but for many people I talk with, the issue never seems to cross their mind, or they aren’t admitting to it for fear of being accused of being you know what.
https://youtu.be/_YahDLTODDg
The Indians and Chinese believe that Australians cannot make a living without them and yet they come here to be educated. The irony.
I suspect they are letting some in already. Peta Credlin has said that 70% of those coming to Australia currently, are not citizens or permanent residents.