Oz Envoy Admits Racist Nature of Some Recent Attacks on Indians

At last, the Australian High Commissioner in India has admitted that some of the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia were made with “racist motive” and that the government has taken effective steps to bring these incidences to an end.

John McCarthy said that majority of attacks against Indians in the past one month have taken place in “poorer” areas in Melbourne where the crime rate is already high.

“There have been a series of bad crimes, particularly in Melbourne and not all of them have resulted into serious injuries, but have taken place in very poorer areas of Melbourne. We are seeking to end those attacks as quickly as possible by intensifying police actions,” the Australian High Commissioner was quoted as saying in a TV channel.

“There is no question that all these are criminal acts. For some of the acts the motivation might have a racist element. I will not rule out that some of the attacks were racist,” he said while responding to a question on the nature of the assaults on Indian students.

McCarthy said that steps have been taken both by the federal and state governments to ensure that repetition of such attacks do not take place and added that police presence has been doubled in areas where students were attacked.

The High Commissioner also said his government has set up a hotline for students, an educational task force under the Education Minister and another task force headed by the Prime Minister himself.

“We are not sitting on the issue. We are moving on it. We intend to deal with it and we will deal with it. We will fix it,” he said.