Biometrics will be extended to new categories of Australian visas

Australia, 11th November: Biometrics checks will become applicable to majority of Australian visas including Australian student visas, reveals Australian immigration department.

These steps are part of the campaign targeted to curb threat of terrorism in the nation.

Meanwhile, the international student educators are showing serious concerns over the latest step by Australian immigration department saying such move could prove negative for foreign students wanting to move to Australia to study here.

Last week, the DIAC(Department of Immigration and Citizenship) had stated that biometric scans will be extended to include asylum seekers, detainees and even foreign students seeking Australian student visas.

The process of biometrics scan is stated to be non-intrusive and discreet examination that records a  fingerprint scan and a digital image of the applicant’s face.

The initial biometrics will be rolled out at two locations during the first stage and then become applicable to Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe thus making the process in line with those already applicable in the US, the UK, Japan and few place at the Middle East.

The new biometric scans will be for those seeking Australian student visas for studying in English language schools, pursuing higher education, vocational education, postgraduate research studies and AusAID visas, the Australian immigration department stated.

The introduction of biometric scans for additional categories of Australian visas comes after last year’s analysis of higher risk regarding identity fraud in vocational education and higher education Australian visas.

Way back in the year 2005, Social Affairs Unit, a UK based think tank had revealed that UK colleges providing higher education and UK universities were largely becoming havens for terrorism recruits. This was enforced by the involvement of two UK bombers behind killing of 52 people in July 2005 who were enrolled in higher education colleges or universities in the UK, Social Affairs Unit clarified.

Hence, introduction of biometrics scans was found to be extremely vital in curbing growing menace of identity fraud in Australian student visas.

However, the matter must be handled very sensitively at foreign posts so as to avoid the international students from assuming that Australia does not welcome them, stated executive director of International Education Association of Australia, Dennis Murray.