The Federation of Indian Students in Australia is holding a peace march in Melbourne on 1st June 2009 in support of the victims of the recent hate crimes against Indian students.
One Indian student who was stabbed in his stomach is still receiving life support treatment at Royal Brisbane Hospital.Another student who was beaten up in the train is currently discharged from the hospital. Another Indian student who was injured in petrol bomb incident is still receiving treatment for 30 % burn wounds at Sydney hospital.
There are about four hundred thousand overseas students in Australian universities out of which nearly one lakh students are from India. FISA leaders have said that the purpose of this rally is to increase the awareness among the Australian nationals about these hate ridden crimes targeting Indian students.
It has come recently to light as per many Indian students in Australia, that these episodes are a result of pre planned mindless attacks targeting Indian students.
Retrospective evidence from the crime records involving racial hatred crimes show that such episodes can be termed as race hate crimes and such similar episodes, sometimes in the form of targeting whites and some other times Chinese, Middle Eastern nationals or blacks have been reported in the past in Australia as well as other parts of the world.
There is somehow total lack of support from the concerned Australian authorities for the Indian students and many other Asian students facing such horrendous atrocities on a regular basis in Melbourne and many other parts of Australia.
The local media have been strangely silent on these issues. Before it is too late It is very important for the elected representatives and the concerned authorities to issue immediate press release statements in order to update the large community of Indian students about the actions taken in these circumstances in order to ensure the safety of the Indian students.
There is already a sense of dejection among many Indian students and are facing a dilemma whether to stay back in Australia to continue education or leave the country as they strongly feel that they lack basic protection in Australia.
Indian Government have raised serious concerns about these episodes and are urgently sending a team to look into these episodes closely and ensure further protection to Indian students from Australian authorities.
