Air India has stepped in the heroic shoes of saving 19 Indian students from harrowing experience in the US, after two universities, they were heading for, have been allegedly blacklisted.
The aircraft was reportedly informed by the US authorities that the two universities to which these students were heading to were under 'scrutiny'. Air India immediately took action by preventing the students from being 'inconvenienced'.
A statement issued by the national carrier cited the plight of 14 students who had earlier travelled on Air India flights to San Francisco to the same universities but were deported after questioning for 14-15 hours in San Francisco, allegedly by the FBI.
Another set of students arrived in Delhi said they were kept in a cell for three days before being deported.
The deported students are from Hyderabad, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and other states. All of them had the word "revoked" written across their US visa.
The official in Hyderabad said, "In the past, we have witnessed that students who secured admission in those institutions have been deported to India as soon as they land there. To avoid embarrassment to them and save their money, we prevented them from boarding the flight.”
Victims' reaction
Deepak, whose father has a transport business, was one of the 14 deported students, who was issued valid visas following a clearance by the US Department of Homeland Security. "We were interrogated for 14-15 hours. We were all kept in one cell. It was humiliating, we were not allowed to go anywhere and were told that we have to return immediately.
“If the universities were blacklisted, why did they issue us the visa?" he wondered.
"It was hard to raise 2-3 lakhs for a US university. Now I have been shamed publicly. How will the blemish go from my passport and from my future? Maybe it was wrong to dream," he said.
Deepak chose the Silicon Valley University because he saw on the website that thousands studied there. He even spoke to Indian students who were studying there and found the fees reasonable.
Balaraju, 22-year-old son of a farmer in Hyderabad said, "I gave up my job to study in the US. My dreams, my parents' hard-earned money, one whole year are all gone."
"We were treated like criminals and sent back," said another student who has been deported by the US authorities.
Word of caution
Air India said it received word on December 19, 2015 from the US Customs and Border Protection agency that allegedly two universities, Silicon Valley in San Jose, California and North Western Polytechnic College in Fremont, California are under scrutiny. The communication from the agency further stated that students who arrived into San Francisco were not allowed to enter the US and were deported back to India.
Air India in a statement said, "Students travel on a one-way ticket to the US and, in the event of deportation, incur huge expenditure to buy a ticket back to India on first available service. Further, seats are often not available on any airlines to travel back.
"Considering the situation, as a precautionary measure and to avoid inconvenience, students booked for travel to take admission to these universities are not being accepted on Air India flights.”
In a notice to its travel agents, Air India said that those travelling on a student visa and heading to these two California universities were not to be sold tickets.
The national carrier, which did not allow the 19 students to board the flight at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, has decided not to accept students headed to these universities till the time it got clearance from Air India's US office for their travel. They have also offered a full refund and waived all charges such as cancellation and rescheduling fee. The airline said it will start accepting students travelling to join these universities, at no additional cost, as soon as clearance is received from Air India's US office.
US Consulate officials in Hyderabad said they are trying to get more information on the situation.
An immigration official at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport said his department had nothing to do with the students not being allowed to board the flight.
In the meanwhile, one of the universities in question have claimed that "absolutely false" reports are being disseminated by certain media outlets and other groups and the institute has not been blacklisted by the US government.
In a series of recent year investigations, many independent colleges in the UK were under severe scrutiny, some later proved as bogus intitutions, that took money from students, but were not in position to confer a degree. That led to quie a few students landing in the UK unknowingly, without a real college or course to study, a place to stay, money for food or even to buy a ticket to go back. They took shelter in temples and Gurdwaras, and ultimately the community came forward to help and rescue them.
National Indian Students Union (UK) in a facebook statement said, “Absolutely horrifying. International education should be stopped from becoming a mere commodity, at the expense of student welfare.”
