White Man's Anxiety

RAMMOHAN Neelam, 24, of Hyderabad, arrived in Australia nine months ago to take a masters degree in computer studies at Griffith University on the glitzy Gold Coast, Australia's version of Miami. But long before he could finish his course, he died—on March 17—from TB that health authorities claim must have been quite advanced last July when he was issued a student visa by the Australian High Commission's immigration section in New Delhi.

Queensland Health authorities have set up a TB screening programme for the hundreds of students and staff he might have come into contact with. They are also screening hundreds of people on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts following three more suspected TB cases last week.

Neelam shared accommodation with two other students from Hyderabad. Like many foreign students he took part-time work. In his case he worked as waiter in a restaurant at Surfer's Paradise, the main city of the Gold Coast.

According to Hemu, a friend of Neelam's older brother Jagan also studying for his masters in computer science in Dallas, he took Nee-lam under his wing when he arrived here last July. "When I saw him at the airport I was very surprised," said Hemu, another Hyderabadi who refused to give his full name. "He had lost so much weight but he said he was homesick and we put it down to all the preparations for the move. He was well until January this year when he started losing more weight. When he shaved his beard off I saw he was a man with a disease problem. He looked terrible and we insisted he go to the university doctor."

Hemu's account only highlights the fact that Neelam's death could have perhaps been avoided if only he had paid heed to his deteriorating health and not been granted a visa in the first place. With TB almost eradicated from the Australian population by decades of public health campaigns, the disease was not immediately recognised. When Neelam was first taken to the university hospital, the doctor suspected it was asthma.

Hemu said Neelam grew so thin he took to getting dressed in the bathroom and by March his breathing was extremely fast. "One day we were seeing an Indian movie and his breathing was very, very fast. I said you are looking like a skeleton and breathing so fast. He said it was an old problem." When an X-Ray revealed TB, Neelam wanted to fly back to India immediately and his parents wanted to come out to be with him. The doctors gave him a 50/50 chance of survival, according to Hemu, but his condition deteriorated fast and 10 days after being admitted to the Gold Coast hospital, Neelam died on a life-support system in the Intensive Care Unit of the Gold Coast Hospital. His brother, Jagan, who flew out from Dallas, arrived too late. He returned home with Neelam's ashes.

Predictably, Neelam's case has been seized upon by the anti-immigrant politician Pauline Hanson, whose바카라 웹사이트 star has faded in recent months as it becomes clear she has little prospect of taking her One Nation party outside a small audience of older, small-town types left behind by economic change.

His death highlighted the government's failure to protect Australians against virulent diseases entering the country, Hanson claimed. Tipped off about Neelam's death a day before the story broke, Hanson called on Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to tighten entry standards. "How many people have been infected since he has been here?" she asked. "How many others like him do we have currently spreading disease? Because clearly they will have to die before we know they are here. "

바카라 웹사이트Hanson has got little noticeable support, though Neelam's two flatmates say they have been abused by Australian students at the Gold Coast campus since his death. Brad Robinson of the office of the minister for immigration said Australia was tightening the entire immigration process after the incident.

All students and other long-term visitors to Australia are required to show X-rays that they are clear of TB. Neelam got his visa before his X-rays arrived showing he needed treatment, and as a result the official who stamped his passport was sacked.

According to newspaper reports here, this was Joginder Singh, 54, who had worked at the high commission for 18 years, and within the immigration section for 10 years. Ruddock has ordered an inquiry to determine, "whether or not there were corrupt practices involved." "We are investigating the reason why this individual took the decision to issue this visa and will determine if any further action is to be taken against him," added an immigration spokesman.

바카라 웹사이트Singh himself, according to The Australian newspaper, claims it was a case of overwork by staff hard pressed for time. "It's just a human error," he said. "I've been made a scapegoat. This mistake could have been made by anyone."

Australian universities have certainly been actively recruiting students from India and other Asian countries. Their fees augment the increasingly stingy allocations from Canberra in this Thatcherite era. Between July 1997 and this January, the High Commission in New Delhi granted 2,485 student visas, up 69 per cent from the previous corresponding period. The mission has a full-time education officer, Tom Calma, and universities have agents in several Indian cities. Griffith also has one agent in Hyderabad, Vandana Mehra.

Neelam had been tested for TB when he applied for his student visa in India and the results forwarded on to the Health Assessment Service in Sydney, an arm of the Immigration Department. "In this case a clinical examination and X-Ray indicated active TB and this message was relayed to our overseas post and further chest clinic treatment was recommended," an Immigration spokesman said. "But the student visa was granted in contravention of usual granting procedure."

SINGH granted the visa within 12 days, before receiving the official test results from the Health Assessment Service. The rules say Singh should have waited for the results, at which point Singh would have received the service's rejection of Neelam's application and its recommendation that he receive further treatment. No action was taken to revoke the visa. The Australian said Singh claimed he was not in charge of that section when the report came back in August.

But Singh is not new to allegations of corrupt granting of visas. Last May the Melbourne-based community newspaper Indian Voice carried a story of two brothers' fight for a permanent entry visa. One brother, Anand Dagore, was allowed into Australia, the other, Jayant, was refused despite having identical qualifications.

Indian Voice said Anand signed a statutory declaration on December 22, 1993, stating Singh had advised them that approval could be arranged through another colleague if up to $20,000 were paid. An Immigration Department investigation was held and, eventually, Jayant was allowed entry into Australia. Singh maintained to The Australian he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Australia, with Norway, has the lowest rate of TB in the world, with the latest statistics showing a 6 per 100,000 of the Australian population. In Queensland, there are 100 cases per year within the Australian community, mostly from migrants and refugees, according to the Queensland Health Department.

Since Neelam's death, Ruddock has ordered a check of all student visas issued in the past year by the Australian High Commission in New Delhi and other missions in areas with a high incidence of TB. A Queensland Health spokesperson commented: "We don't want to scare people off. This was an unusual case. If a person with TB wants a visa to Australia and are treated before entering the country and rendered non-infectious it is okay for them to come in. TB is a curable disease. The tragedy of this case was that Neelam presented himself too late and died."