Researchers from the University of NSW and the University of Technology Sydney discovered students had been exploited in share housing that they found on social media and websites.

Half of all respondents said they had experiences one or more problems including being deceived about the accommodation they received, landlords moving in extra people without the consent of tenants and overcharging.

Redfern Legal Centre has helped 18 international students living in three properties in Kingsford recover $36, 000 in bond and charges for unknown services.

Law Enforcement Conduct Commission head, Michael Adam QC, told a public hearing into claims three teenage boys were unlawfully searched at an under-18s event that strip searches conduct without legal justification “may well be indecent assault”.

“When one is dealing with a subject such as strip searching of young people, the inevitable sexual content of such events cannot be overlooked,” he said.

When Chinese international student Jiaying Wan first arrived in Sydney, she was forced to pay more than $8,000 up-front for her four-month lease and bond.

Wan found a private room, in accommodation described to her as a “boarding house”, online before arriving in Australia.

Eventually, she sought help from legal services.

Redfern Legal Centre subsequently took the landlord to the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Financial abuse is a form of domestic violence. It is a pattern of abusive behaviour where the abuser uses money to exert power and control over their partner.

Research by WIRE indicates that up to 90% of women seeking help from Australian domestic violence services have experienced financial abuse.

Losing his accommodation last year brought home to Uktarsh Guatam just how vulnerable international students are when they don’t understand their legal rights.

“I was lucky enough to have really good mates who acted as pillars of strength and sorted me out, but unfortunately this is not how the story ends for many international students here,” the final-year Macquarie University business student said.

22-year-old Teleaha Bower was allegedly approached by two undercover male police officers outside a pawn shop in St Mary’s last month and was told she would be strip searched.

According to Bower, the officers claimed there had been a break-in nearby and suspected her involvement.

She says the officers emptied the entire contents of her handbag onto the ground, then forced her to face the shop’s front window and lift her clothing to reveal her torso and upper body, in full view of a man inside.

The New South Wales police commissioner, Mick Fuller, says he was “disappointed” by the conduct of officers who strip-searched a 16-year-old girl at a music festival in 2018 but has again stood by the use of the controversial police power.

After a dramatic rise in the number of strip-searches conducted by police over the past decade, Fuller said the rate of strip-searches was declining across that state as pressure mount on use of the practice.

Commissioner Mick Fuller on Monday said he’d sent a video to his 17,000 police officers around the state saying he fully supported strip searching and warning changes to policing policy would increase crime.

The Commissioner’s comments echo those of NSW Police Minister David Elliot, who this month said he’d be happy for his children to be strip searched if police officers believed they were about to commit a crime.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Fuller expressed alarm about community opposition to strip searches saying young people on the verge of criminality should have “a little bit of fear” of police.

“My biggest issue at the moment is making sure the public understand why we need to be a force and understand it’s important to have powers and use those powers because if you don’t, there are consequences,” he said.

“There will be a generation of kids that have no respect for authority and no respect for the community