As per a report from Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, around 15,000 Indian students in Australia could be forced to return home under a revised skills list that is set to become the mandate for visas and permanent residency to that country from July 1. Australia has slashed the existing Skilled Occupations List (SOL) from 400 skills to just 181 for vocational courses and jobs, which are prerequisites to acquire permanent resident status and student visas.
Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi urged Canberra to exempt existing students from the new list. He is confident the Australian government will not turn down his request to exempt the existing students from the new skills list in order to let them finish with their courses and for permanent residency.
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs Joint Secretary G. Gurucharan said that 60 percent of the Indian students will not be affected by the revised list, and of the remaining 30 percent will be given a transition period of two and a half years to either find a job or sponsor to acquire permanent resident status while remaining 10 percent or around 10,000 students who arrived in Australia on student visas with neither vocational nor language skills only intending to pick up jobs and secure permanent residency will land in trouble.
Adding to this 10,000 are 5,000 other students are affected when Australian government ordered closure of 34 of its privately run institutes in the last few months for failing to meet the laid down standards. Many more institutes are expected to follow suit.