‘Sex-for-room’ demands as landlords exploit foreign students, charity claims

Sex for cheap rent is just one of the horrors faced by international students seeking a place to stay, a homeless charity has warned.

A homeless charity is seeing more international students with nowhere to live.

Exploitative landlords have demanded sex in exchange for cheap rent from vulnerable foreign students struggling to find accommodation, a homeless charity has warned.

The government-funded Sydney Community Forum revealed that some students were living in university libraries, which are open around the clock.

The charity’s executive officer, Asha Ramzan, said too many international students were struggling to find a place to live. She said she knew of cases where landlords had offered a cheap room in exchange for sex.

Some students were sleeping in 24/7 university libraries, she said, storing their belongings in lockers. “We have recently seen an alarming rise in the number of students contacting us who are homeless and in financial crisis,’’ she said.

“We are also concerned about the safety and wellbeing of female international students who find themselves vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, both physical and sexual, in the context of high cost-of-living pressures combined with a rental crisis and lack of affordable and safe accommodation options.’’

The Sydney Community Forum charity has warned that some international students are being exploited by landlords demanding sex in exchange for cheap accommodation. Picture: iStock

Ms Ramzan said many international students come from the developing world, and had no friends or family in Australia. She said students from India, Nepal and The Philippines were the most likely to seek help from her charity.

“As large numbers of international students come back to our shores daily, we are seeing more students in extreme distress because they can’t find somewhere affordable to live,’’ she said.

“Another pressing concern is the number of students who come to Australia with dependent children, only to learn they can’t access subsidised childcare, preschool or school education for their children.’’

Ms Ramzan said international students were not categorised as “migrants’’ so they were excluded from Medicare, and multicultural support programs. They were required to take out private health insurance but many could not afford to pay gap fees, and had to wait 12 months to access prenatal services if they fell pregnant, she said.

International students are only allowed to work an average of 20 hours a week.

Ms Ramzan said students “do the jobs Australians don’t want to’’, such as cleaning, Uber driving and aged or disability care. She said she knew of entire villages overseas that had pooled their money to send a student to Australia to study at university or in a private training college.

“Almost all international students work and pay taxes in Australia but they can’t access subsidised childcare or our public education system for their school-aged children,’’ she said.

“We know of students with young children who have no choice but to leave them with people who are not qualified or safe to care for their children while they attend class.

“A number of students we know of can’t afford the school fees for their school-aged children so they don’t go to school, or worse their children may be going to an informal community or faith-based school, which is extremely worrying on so many levels.’’

Student visas require international students to send their children to private schools, or else pay a hefty fee to send them to public schools.

A record 577,295 international student visas were granted last financial year. Nearly one in five students come from China, with 16 per cent from India and 7.3 per cent from Colombia.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says international education pumped $26.6bn into Australia’s economy last year. More than 200,000 international students go to university, with nearly 150,000 in private training colleges, 40,000 in intensive English courses and 8425 in schools.