September 2010 - Lateline
TRANSCRIPT
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Last year the Federal Government moved to crack down on dodgy private colleges after widespread reports of scams involving international students.
Many of the so-called "visa factory" colleges, providing hairdressing and cooking courses in return for permanent visas, no longer exist.
Despite the overhaul of the tertiary sector, lawyers say that foreign students are now struggling with another major problem: accommodation and workplace rip-offs.
John Stuart reports.
JOHN STUART, REPORTER: These Indian students are studying at Victoria's La Trobe University. Earlier this year they answered an ad offering work at a mattress recycling factory in Melbourne. When the students arrived, they were told they would not be paid until after they'd been trained.
ARUN KOMATH, STUDENT: We just rocked up and we were like, "Okay, we are ready for the work. What work do you have?" And she was like, "I have a mattress factory. And the thing is, I won't be paying you guys immediately because you guys would be trained first. And after the training period, there's another house that I have."
JOHN STUART: The students say they received no training.
The factory owner, a woman called Tina, then offered the students free accommodation in this house in return for working five nights a week. The students moved into the house, but three months later were still waiting to be paid. They later decided to quit the mattress job and moved out of the house.
ARUN KOMATH: Because of the conditions there, we obviously knew that we were cheated and our morale was going down. There were fights between us, friends, for nothing, for absolutely nothing.
JOHN STUART: The factory has no signs to identify it from the outside and the mattresses are advertised on the internet. The students say they were not offered any contract or work agreement.
ANIL VEMOORI, STUDENT: She says, "Go fuck yourselves," many times. When she feels that the work is not proper, she used to say that.
JOHN STUART: The students say the work was unsafe.
ANIL VEMOORI: I operated a staple gun. When you know that gun carpenters used (inaudible) for stapling. And I operated without any experience; that was my first day I went there.
ARUN KOMATH: She used to make it sound as if everything that she was doing was legal and because we were new at that time, we couldn't really question her or make sense out of it ourselves.
JOHN STUART: The Tenants Union of Victoria say landlords are increasingly targeting international students as a source of cheap labour.
TOBY ARCHER, TENANTS UNION OF VICTORIA: We've seen a whole heap of people who've flocked to a source of income, basically seeing them as a total cash cow. We're seeing really unscrupulous operators who we may have come across in the past running rooming houses, running specialist student accommodation, also providing an additional mix of services which are equally exploitative.
JOHN STUART: The owner of the factory declined to be interviewed, but said over the phone that the students were lazy, slow workers who didn't deserve to be paid.
In Sydney, legal centres which represent international students say that work and accommodation rip-offs are common.
JOANNA SHULMAN, CEO, REDFERN LEGAL CENTRE: Many international students, particularly those from Asian backgrounds, are too scared to assert their legal rights, particularly when in these situations we have head tenants telling them that if they bring claim or if they alert someone that this is happening, they will have their visas taken away from them and they'll be forced to leave the country.
JOHN STUART: Jana Jisova is a student from the Czech Republic. She paid a $300 bond and $170 a week for a room in a basement and was told that she'd be sharing the room with one other woman.
JANA JISOVA, STUDENT: He said I'm gonna share the room with one girl only, and he said a Japanese girl. So I was like, "Yeah, I like Japanese people."
JOHN STUART: But when she arrived, the words "share accommodation" took on a whole new meaning.
JANA JISOVA: Next day I just moved in, gave him a bond and went straight - went to the workplace. After work when I came back it was a late night. I suddenly found six more people there sharing the room with me.
JOHN STUART: Jana Jisova decided to move out and then discovered that getting her bond back would not be easy.
JANA JISOVA: If I don't like it I can, "Fuck off the house." That's what he said.
JOHN STUART: Tenancy advocates say that some landlords routinely kick out groups of international students just to keep their bond.
ANNA CODY, DIRECTOR, KINGSFORD LEGAL CENTRE UNSW: Well, if you're keeping bonds of up to $600 from each individual and you're doing that every two months, then it becomes quite a nice income earner for people, and you couldn't help but wonder that that is actually the main reason why they're doing it.
JOHN STUART: Many foreign students live in overcrowded apartments. Here in Sydney's inner city, some live on enclosed balconies with newspapers pasted against the glass to block out the sun.
JACQUI SWINBURNE, INNER SYDNEY TENANTS ADVOCACY SERVICE: The more extreme cases are probably around four to a small room in bunk beds, so you’ve got eight or 10 people per two bedroom flat. And usually you've got a couple of people in the loungeroom as well. And in some extreme cases, you've got people living on enclosed balconies as well.
JOHN STUART: Bond rip-offs and overcrowding are not the only problems facing international students.
One of the most common scams affecting international students involves a head tenant who signs a lease, taking control of an apartment. The head tenant never moves into the apartment, but then crams the flat full of international students. The head tenant then becomes a middleman, skimming extra cash off students before paying the landlord.
JACQUI SWINBURNE: I think it's very lucrative, especially for the head tenants who don't own the property. They don't have the same outgoings that a landlord would have and they're not responsible for doing repairs. So, they're not really doing much at all to earn their money.
JOHN STUART: In Brisbane, the City Council has cracked down on landlords who cram foreign students into rental properties. The council has placed a limit of five unrelated people who can live in any one dwelling and is prosecuting landlords who ignore the rule.
GRAHAM QUIRK, DEPUTY MAYOR: Well we did have one instance of 37 students being crammed into what was a fairly large house. But there are many examples that have been in the 15 to 20 category, and council have been diligently following up in relation to those.
JOHN STUART: Brisbane City Council has carried out 2,000 home inspections to try and keep overcrowding under control and has fined some landlords thousands of dollars.
GRAHAM QUIRK: This is a question of reputation. These young students that are coming here from many different lands are going to be the business, trade and political leaders in their countries into the future. And so we want to give them a good experience when they come to Brisbane. We want to assure that our reputation as a city, and also Australia's reputation, is preserved.
JOHN STUART: Lawyers and tenancy groups who represent international students say the university sector needs to do more to protect students from being exploited.
TOBY ARCHER: Look, we've reached the conclusion that the tertiary education sector basically turns a blind eye to the housing situation of their students. It really is time that they shone a light on that, because ultimately it will affect their ability to attract students in the end.
But, it really allows unscrupulous operators to take advantage of their students while they're here and it's just not acceptable for them to not step into the space and step up to the challenge.
JOHN STUART: The university sector says that all universities provide accommodation and tenancy information before, during and after international students enrol and that universities are currently seeking to liaise with community housing bodies and government authorities.
The Indian students at La Trobe University say the experience working in the mattress factory has not changed their view of Australia.
ARUN KOMATH: I think there are bad elements anywhere in the world and I won't say it's about Australia or whatever. In fact, all of my Australian friends have been really supportive of me.
JOHN STUART: But they are now more cautious about who they work for and where they live.
John Stuart, Lateline.
Watch on the ABC website.
