By Christine de Kock
RESOURCE groups in Footscray are joining forces to prevent recent African migrants from being swindled by unscrupulous salespeople.
Representatives from the New Hope Foundation Refugee Resource Centre and the Footscray Community Legal Centre intend to meet this week to discuss the emerging problem in the West.
The move comes in response to reports that some members of the African community are signing contracts without fully understanding their contractual and financial obligations.
Dennis Nelthorpe, the legal centre’s managing solicitor, said he would propose that a clinic be run to educate recent African migrants about consumer rights, financial literacy and understanding contracts.
Mr Nelthorpe said he hoped to involve legal services in other areas like Werribee and the Consumer Action Law Centre in the City to support the program.
“I think the African community’s needs are greater than what can be serviced by individual agencies,” he said.
Mr Nelthorpe added that language barriers would be overcome through interpreters who would also be involved in the program.
Ian Bouch, volunteer at the New Hope Foundation Refugee Resource Centre, said it appeared African families were being singled out by door-to-door salespeople selling mobile phone contracts and utility services.
He said two people from Burundi, one living in Braybrook the other in Footscray, were offered contracts with a mobile-phone company.
He said they were approached at their house by a door-to-door salesperson and then driven to the store to sign the contract.
“In the case of some contractors the cooling-off period is longer for a sale that is solicited rather than unsolicited,” he said.
“So for example with a mobile-phone contract, if they go into a shop to sign a contract, the cooling off period is shorter.”
He said that in many cases those who signed the contracts were not fluent in English or did not fully understand their contractual obligations.
Mr Bouch said when asked for further details about the mobile-phone company that had approached them “they were afraid to tell me, they just put the mobile phone aside”.
He said he believed that members of the African community were being targeted by salespeople as a result of personal experience.
