The case of Indian students deported in 2017
Supplied Content
Auckland, June 27, 2018
The following material was sent to us by McClymont and Associates (Barristers & Solicitors) and hence carries in its entirety their opinions and statements.
The Ombudsman’s decision to discontinue his investigation into Immigration NZ’s actions in making students solely responsible justifies INZ punishing visa applicants by deporting them – even if the agents provide false information with the applications without the student’s knowledge.
But these dodgy Indian education agents are the New Zealand schools’ agents, not the students’ agents. Our local private education providers recruit, manage and pay the Indian agents to recruit the students.
The students can choose from a selection of the schools’ agents, but they don’t pay the agents – the schools pay the agents.
I asked the Ombudsman to investigate and comment on the wider circumstances of exploitation within the unregulated education agent system, which is a core component of the export education industry.
Request ignored
The Ombudsman ignored this request and accepted without question or comment INZ’s placing of the blame fully on the students, while entirely ignoring the wider context in which offshore education agents operate, and the motivation and opportunities that agents have to not only defraud INZ but to defraud international students.
The wider circumstances that enable the fraud to take place:
· Student visa applications are submitted by each agent directly to INZ – not via the student.
· The NZ immigration system does not include specific mechanisms to regulate offshore education agents. In fact, the government made a conscious decision to exempt offshore education agents from regulation, in the same way that NZ lawyers and MPs are exempt.
· The Indian education agents acting on behalf of the students were paid their high commission by New Zealand schools only if the application was successful, therefore creating a motive for the agent to obtain a successful decision.
· INZ investigations had already verified that fraudulent documents were created by education agents in conjunction with local banks.
· The signing of blank forms is prevalent as a practice in the Indian cultural context and strongly encouraged by the schools’ agents.
· Many of the applicants stated in their submission that their Indian agents had told them about emails received from INZ regarding loan disbursement payments and said it was a mistake and they would sort out the problem.
· INZ has uncovered in parallel investigations, cases in which Indian education agents have created fake email addresses on behalf of students for purposes such as a verification of information and undertaking interviews.
Discouraging students
The consequences of the Ombudsman’s decision, confirming that the students are SOLELY responsible, will simply drive students underground, discouraging them from giving evidence to INZ about any fraudulent activities carried out by their employers, schools or agents. Because they now know that if they do so, they will definitely be penalised by the actions of these third parties on their behalf.
Are we as New Zealanders proud of an immigration system that punishes vulnerable, young, naïve foreign students who have been preyed on by unscrupulous and unregulated education agents/ There is a need to change the punitive culture within INZ. The challenge of addressing the core problem with schools, agents and employers has clearly been perceived as too difficult, therefore INZ has taken the easier path by punishing the victims of these fraudsters as a deterrent to students becoming victims in the future. In fact the Ombudsman concluded that the students should be punished because they should have been more careful in the first place.
What is this Government going to do to ensure that vulnerable students are protected against exploitative schools, employers and their agents/ Parliament made the decision not to regulate offshore education agents, so it’s up to Parliament to provide the solution and change the legislation.
INZ to audit applications
As a result of the Ombudsman appeal made by Mr McClymont and his team on behalf of a group of Indian students, the Ombudsman has accepted INZ’s offer “to undertake an audit of 213 potentially affected Indian nationals who were approved a student visa when applying offshore with the assistance of an exempt education advisor, but were declined a subsequent visa on character grounds.”
A number of Mr McClymont’s clients who sought sanctuary at a Ponsonby Church in February 2017 were promised by INZ that if they departed New Zealand voluntarily then INZ would consider their reapplications for visas from India. Three of these students submitted applications which were subsequently declined for reasons that will likely to apply to every other student who reapplies for a visa.
Victims punished
This shows INZ defaulting on their agreement to process offshore visas fairly.
The visas were declined for reasons which INZ has acknowledged were factually incorrect, but senior managers subsequently refused to reverse their decisions.
This illustrates perfectly INZ’s crusade to punish victims of fraud and ignore prior agreements between students and INZ. Documents also show that INZ have advised the Minister of Immigration that they target for deportation those migrants who may become victims.
(INZ memorandum to the Minister of Immigration dated March 26, 2018 reflected focus of deportation action on migrants who may “become victims of exploitation” because of “poor-quality educational institutions”).
Labour’s commitment
As Labour Party MPs prior to the 2017 General Election, Jacinda Ardern, Andrew Little and Iain Lees Galloway all spoke out about this injustice and the need for it to be addressed.
“This is a manifestly unjust situation for these students. There is no evidence of the students themselves having done wrong, but they are being punished while the rogue agents get off scot-free . . . The situation has arisen because of a cowboy industry that the National Government has taken no responsibility for controlling . . . It is about time we had a Government that offers compassion and natural justice.”
Iain Lees-Galloway quoted in Indian Newslink, 3 February 2017https://www.indiannewslink.co.nz/indian-students-need-compassion/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm/c_id=1&objectid=11797704
Now is the time for them to honour their words.
Although the Labour Government wants people to come forward to report exploitative practices or potential fraud, the students know that if they do, INZ will punish them by deporting them or declining any subsequent visa applications they make from abroad. Therefore, it is often against students’ best interests to expose any exploitation and fraud they uncover.
This reflects a disconnect between what the Governmentsays it wants to achieve – cracking down on exploitative practices and fraud in the export education sector – and what its bureaucrats are actually doing at the coalface in INZ.
Punishing culture
INZ has developed a culture of punishing the victims and refusing to even consider the wider context in which fraud and exploitation takes place. Knowing this, migrants are simply driven underground, which then leads to further exploitation.
How the student visa process currently operates:
Students in India who contact schools in NZ directly are told to use one of the school’s agents in India.
The New Zealand school will pay a commission to their agent only if the student visa application is successful.
After the student has signed a blank application form, the agents then have the opportunity to manipulate the information provided in the application to Immigration New Zealand, often by editing information, substituting documents, treating false email addresses, creating fake bank loan approval documents, etc. It is impossible for students to oversee every aspect of the process, as agents often provide information by email to INZ after the forms have been signed, and INZ will accept that information.
At the time of this fraud, INZ conducted very few interviews with the students, choosing instead to rely on the representations of the school’s agents on behalf of the students.
If the student visa is approved, the New Zealand school would then pay a percentage of the school fees to the agent, often around NZ$ 2500 per student.
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Photo of Alastair McClymont from Indian Newslink files
