Bangladeshi student’s success in visa suit likely to help 8,000 in Australia
BSS, Dhaka
A successful suit filed by Bangladeshi student Mohammad Ahsanuddin against the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs for wrongful cancellation of his student visa is expected to help other foreign students whose visas were cancelled on the same grounds.Ashan went to Australia on March 9, 1999 to continue his tertiary education. Having done some courses, he was enrolled in a diploma course of Hospitality Management and Commercial Cookery in Melbourne on October 6, 2003. Ahsan's visa was cancelled after he failed to attend 50 percent of his classes and then did not attend a meeting with immigration officials. He was apparently sent a letter asking him to attend the meeting. The Federal Magistrate's Court in June decided that the letter, a standard-form notice sent to Ahsan by his school and a copy to the Department, was "defective". It did not fit migration regulations, Magistrate Stephen Scarlett said. Ahsan's lawyers argued, and Scarlett agreed, that the letter did not fit the migration regulations, according to a report published in the Australian papers on September 16. Under the regulations, the form should have asked that Ahsan contact any immigration officer at any office of the Department. "We were just trying to be helpful" in specifying which office was closest to Ahsan, an immigration official was quoted as saying. Ahsan, however, claimed that he had not received the letter. The court verdict in favour of Ahsan forced the Australian government to reverse its decision for up to 8,000 failed or truant foreign students. The department has since received legal advice that the decision regarding Ahsan would apply to all ex-students whose visas were cancelled after they received the letter and did not turn up. The Australian Government will launch a worldwide search for ex-students whose visas were cancelled after they received the letter and then failed to attend a meeting with an immigration officer. Advertisements in the media, including foreign-language publications, would alert former students to the decision to reverse their visa cancellation. And overseas-based immigration officers would be on standby to help those students who had left Australia, the report said. The letter was sent to foreign students who had breached their visa conditions -- attending less than 80 percent of classes or failing to pass a "reasonable standard." It gave students 28 days to attend a meeting. Immigration officials conceded the department could face compensation claims as a result of the decision. The department had spent months since the June verdict whether to appeal. But legal advice suggested the department could not win, the official said.
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