Why are Students in Detention?

It seems that policy can sometimes make an ass of our immigration system.

The Australian reported this week that 36 overseas students were in detention for breaching conditions on their visas. The more shocking statistic is that some 2646 students in total have been detained since January 2001. Check out the article here: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25784268-601,00.html

Why? Put simply, a student visa has various conditions, including the requirement to attend classes, meet course requirements, etc. These conditions make sense - we don't want people applying for student visas unless they are genuine students.

But the way those conditions are enforced is absurd. Anyone who has been to University knows fails are all too common. As an agent, I've assisted numerous clients who have, following faliures, had their visas cancelled and have had to show that they have "compelling circumstances outside of their control" to blame for that failure. This is too much, really.

A recent client had failed a couple of courses through his own reluctance to own up to the fact that the degree he was studying was too difficult. With the help of his Uni, he changed into a more appropriate degree in which he was getting much better grades. By then though, it was too late - the cancellation process was underway and now he has to leave the country. Goodbye to a future highly-skilled tax payer!

It becomes patently clear how absurd this is when that student then faces potential detention for having failed their courses if they don't depart the country on time. Not even the strictest regimes of the last two-thousand years locked people up just for being bad students!

If you want to have a system for enforcing the "genuineness" of a student, go for it, but think carefully about the consequences and the hurdles you make people jump through!