By Neena Bhandari, IANS
Sydney : The Australian Federal Police have been given another 48 hours to question Dr Mohammad Haneef arrested in Gold Coast over possible links to the failed UK terrorist attacks, even as the second man, Dr Mohammed Asif Ali, being interrogated has been released.
The Indian consulate in Queensland has been in contact with Dr Haneef. Honorary Consul in Brisbane, Prof. Sarvadaman Singh, told IANS, "We received a call from him yesterday at 11 am, informing us that he had been held on suspicion of terrorism and if we could inform his family. We do not know his address in India, we do not know his passport number, we do not know his date of birth, there are no details to go on. That was the end of it. We are constantly in touch with the police and trying to offer any consular support Dr Haneef may require".
A senior officer from London's Metropolitan Police is scheduled to arrive in Australia soon to help in the interrogation of Dr Haneef.
The arrest of the 27-year old Indian national has put the focus on overseas trained doctors and the 457 work visa. Under the 457 visa program, skilled migrant workers are allowed temporary entry to Australia to take up specific jobs with sponsor employers who cannot fill the positions locally. Doctors have been able to apply for the Temporary Business Long Stay visa (subclass 457) since April 2005.
Many doctors, who have qualified overseas, have migrated to Australia especially since 1970. Forty percent of all doctors in Australia were overseas trained and almost 15 percent of overseas trained doctors in Australia are Indians. A large proportion of these doctors hail from the Indian subcontinent.
Overseas and Australian Medical Graduates Association (OAMGA) president Dr V Nagamma, who migrated to Australia in 1979 from Bangalore, said, "I encourage people to remain open minded on the matter until the investigations are complete. It is disappointing to hear that a medical professional has been implicated in connection to activities that we as a community don't endorse. It would be a knee-jerk reaction by a community at large to draw any conclusion until the jury is out."
Medical practitioners are much in demand in Australia, especially in remote towns. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, overseas-born doctors made up a lower proportion of doctors in Inner Regional areas (35 percent) than in Major Cities (44 percent) and Outer Regional areas (44 percent). However, the proportion of doctors who were born overseas was highest in Remote areas (56 percent) and Very Remote areas (51 percent).
Prime Minister John Howard and Federal Attorney General Philip Ruddock have both defended Australia's 457 visa scheme. Before a visa is granted a standard character and security check is carried out into prison records, convictions, political affiliations and military experience.
In recent years, the influx of foreign skilled migrants have eased checks on applicants as the department's resources are overwhelmed with increasing numbers. Last year the number of 457 visas approved jumped by more than 40 per cent to just under 40,000.
About 3000 foreign medical graduates a year are allowed into Australia, many of them under the 457 visa scheme. The Department of Immigration website points doctors to the temporary business (long stay) visa (subclass 457), describing it as the "preferred temporary visa pathway for doctors entering Australia. It allows applicants to take advantage of streamlined visa processing arrangements, including the ability to lodge applications over the internet using a special online application form."
There are estimated to be 5000 overseas trained doctors working under supervision and under the 457 temporary visa scheme. In the past 12 months 1200 doctors have been given visas under the scheme and Queensland Health is understood to be its biggest user.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has appealed for calm and defended Queensland's overseas trained doctors, describing them as good people and hard workers in the community. Two years ago, the case of Dr Jayant Patel dubbed as "Dr Death" in Queensland had raised concerns over the recruitment of overseas doctors. The Australian government says the work visas are crucial to alleviating skills shortages, but Labor and the unions say the program has been used to exploit low-paid workers.
Meanwhile, the manager of the Gold Coast apartment complex where Dr Haneef lived told ABC Radio, "There's still washing out on the line, you know on the balcony and dishes around, bread sitting there, stuff like that. It didn't really look like an apartment that someone was heading overseas for a while." He kept his apartment tidy and always paid the rent.
According to local media reports, Dr Haneef had told his Gold Coast Hospital colleagues that he was "in a hurry to get home" for seven to 10 days, despite not having any scheduled holidays on his roster between June 4 and August 10.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty has told newspersons that he hoped to be able to charge, release or extradite Dr Haneef by the end of the week. The police are believed to have found correspondence and evidence of telephone communication between Haneef and some of the British suspects.
For now, Australia's threat assessment remains at its current level of medium. But in this federal election year, where security has been catapulted as one of the main election issues, Howard did add: "We should not be complacent. There are people in our midst who would do us harm and evil if they had the opportunity to do so.'' On the attempted bomb attacks in UK, Howard had earlier said that a "small group" of would-be terrorists exist in Australia.
Meanwhile, as Australia gears to host the 2007 APEC leaders summit in early September, a cutting edge mobile chemical and biological weapons detection laboratory to be stationed at Sydney airport was opened, amid warnings that a terrorist attack in Australia remains feasible.