Race not reason behind attacks on India students: Report

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Indian students in Australia were robbed more frequently and were more likely to be the victims of assault as compared to other foreign pupils, but race was not the reason for these attacks, an official report said today.

The 72-page report released by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), which deals with the incidents of assault and robbery crimes against overseas students in Australia between 2005-2009, is a first of its kind against the backdrop of Indian student attack crisis.

In essence, the study "indicates that international students are less likely or as likely to be victims of physical assault and other theft" as the general population of the country.

"Further, the level of crime experienced by international students of different nationalities varied, with Indian students typically experiencing the same or a heightened incidence of assault and other theft than other student nationalities," it said.

"The findings for robbery were more concerning in international students, again predominantly Indian students (males and females), but also Chinese males, were significantly more likely to be the victim of robbery for some jurisdictions for some years compared with Australian reference populations."

The report, however, rejected racism as a cause of the higher theft rate.

One reason it offered was that Indian students had a better grasp of English than students from China, Korea and other source countries, and so were better placed to get jobs where they were exposed to the public.