Now, Scribe attacked in Australia

In an incident that confirms that that there's more than meets the eye in the incidents of so-called "racist" attacks on Indian students in Australia (KHALIDOSCOPE, July 23), an Australian television reporter, who went undercover for an investigation into alleged Indian education and immigrations scams, was threatened and assaulted in Sydney over the weekend.

The young woman reporter, whose identity has been protected for reasons of safety, was reportedly left "bruised and shaken" by the Sydney attack, which has been reported to police.

Four Corners, an investigative documentary on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), had aired a segment on corrupt Indian migrant agents, who offered fraudulent education documents.
u00a0
Interviewing two migration agents, the reporter had been offered a fake work certificate and ways to cheat an English test upon payment of Aus $5,000 (approx Rs 2 lakh).
u00a0
KHALIDOSCOPE had revealed last week that many of the night attacks on Indian students in lonely, rundown Melbourne and Sydney suburbs were by Australian youths of mixed ethnic origin, many of who were alcoholics and drug addicts, and rendered unemployed as a result of the global recession.

This column had reported that a large number of the incidents were also the result of dubious practices by unscrupulous Indian migration agents who, in league with Australian educational institutions of dubious authenticity, offered fake education documents to unsuspecting Indian students with promises of eligibility to migrate after their studies.