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ShareMelbourne: Amid an environment of deep outrage over a series of racial attacks against Indian students in Australia, a prominent Oz daily, The Age, has come out with a report claiming that coroners have suppressed the details of the deaths of 51 international students and that there is evidence that the toll is higher than that admitted by the government.
The daily reported on Wednesday that state and territory coroners, under the National Coroners Information System, refused an application by the daily for data on the deaths of overseas students between November 2008 and now.
"The nationality and occupation of someone who has died is not required to be automatically recorded," a spokeswoman for Victorian coroner Jennifer Coate was quoted as saying. Melbourne is the capital of the Victorian province.
In February, during questioning in parliament, the government said 51 overseas students died in 2008, with 34 dying of "unknown" causes. Fourteen cases were cited as accidents and three as death from illness. The death toll is higher than 51 -- around 54 -- with most coming from India, Korea and China, the report said. Nearly half were Indian, despite Indians holding one-fifth of the total student visas at that time.
Chris Nyland, Monash University business professor, said he was concerned that a drive to protect Australia's lucrative $15.5 billion higher education export market was masking the suffering of foreign students.
"All countries that compete for the education market should be reporting that information. "And... it would be wonderful if we had good data saying that it was not the case they are harmed at any greater rate than domestic students," he said. National Union of Students president David Barrow said: "The time has come for a full-scale inquiry. Australian society and government need to see all the facts."
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone said she sought the data in February because foreign-student organisations suspected under-reporting of deaths. "To have 34 cited as unknown is an extraordinary statistic," she said. "It will no doubt be raising further anxiety and alarm, particularly in the Indian student community and their parents and relatives and friends."
