Posted on 08/12/2006 12:08:10 AM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
Anxious families of some of 11 Egyptians who failed to show up for studies at an American university said Thursday that the students may have decided to try to look for work and live in the United States.
The students' failure to show up for their monthlong study program at Montana State University prompted a police hunt for the 11, though U.S. authorities said they had no indication there was a terrorism threat from any of the 11. Three of them were taken into custody or turned themselves in this week -- one in Minnesota, the other two in New Jersey.
They were among a group of 18 students from Mansoura University, located in Egypt's northern Nile Delta. The other seven students from the group reported for the program on English Language and U.S. History in Bozeman, Montana.
Egyptian security officials said they believe the 11 students, who had no criminal records or known ties to Islamic militants, decided to abandon their studies and seek work in the U.S. Egyptian police were not pursuing the issue, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The father of Eslam El-Dessouki, the student arrested in Minnesota, said his son likely wanted to try to find work.
"America is something super. It must have been in his mind to stay where there are plenty of job opportunities. You know how much a dollar is worth here in Egypt," said Ibrahim el-Dessouki, a retired army officer living in the village of Sinbelawan, near Mansoura. He said he spoke to his son when he arrived in the States but not since.
After hearing reports about a terror plot foiled in London, el-Dessouki became worried that American authorities might think his son was involved. "Will he be fine? Will they torture him?" he said.
U.S. authorities have said the missing students are not suspected of any connection to the London plot.
The students arrived in the U.S. on July 29, and when they did not report to the school, Montana State repeatedly tried to contact them. When that failed, the school notified Homeland Security officials and registered the Egyptians as "no-shows" in the system developed after the Sept. 11 attacks to track foreign students.
The sister of another of the students -- 18-year-old Mustafa Wagdi, who is still missing -- said she spoke to him on the day he arrived in Egypt and a second time five days ago.
He assured her "that he is OK and he is living with his colleagues," but he did not say where, the sister said in a phone interview from Mansoura. She refused to give her name because of worries of trouble with Egyptian security services over the incident.
The sister was quoted in the Egyptian press as saying her brother had told her over the phone that he would stay in the U.S. to find work. Speaking to The Associated Press, she denied making those comments, saying she didn't know what he was doing.
But she added that if her brother had decided to look for work, "I know that it's wrong to do, but everybody does it."
U.S. government tightened the student visa process after the 9-11 attacks. One of the hijackers involved in the attacks had arrived in the U.S. with a student visa.
Illegal emigration is very common in Egypt, where rising unemployment and inflation prompt young men to seek jobs in the West. Many Egyptians are returned home on weekly flights from Malta, Cyprus, or Greece after failing to sneak through borders to Europe.
Mansoura University required each student in the group heading to Montana to sign a piece of paper promising to return home on schedule and "represent Egypt in a good manner" while in the United States. The university has said it will expel the students who disappeared.
According to the families, each student paid around 25,000 L.E., equivalent to $4,500 dollars, to participate in the program.
The mother of Mohammed Ragab Abdullah, 22, who surrendered in Manville, N.J., was furious her son had slipped away, saying her husband paid "lots and lots of money."
But the elder el-Dessouki said it was worth the investment, given the bribes some have to pay to find government jobs in Egypt.
"A cleaning worker in a ministry paid 6,000 pounds ($1,050) to get a job," he said. "So it's not strange to pay 25,000 L.E. to get my only son a chance to go to the States."
9 of 11 Egyptian students now in custody
WASHINGTON - Nine of 11 Egyptian exchange students who recently entered the United States and failed to appear at their college program were in custody Saturday after three were arrested in Des Moines, Iowa, officials said.
They were Ahmed Refaat Saad El Moghazi El Laket, age 19; Mohamed Ibrahim El Sayed El Moghazy, age 20; and Moustafa Wagdy Moustafa El Gafary, age 18.
The students were to attend a monthlong program at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont. A group of 17 students arrived in New York on July 29. Six reported to Bozeman on time.
After Montana State repeatedly tried to contact the missing students, it notified Department of Homeland Security officials and registered the Egyptians as no-shows in a system to track foreign students developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
When will we stop letting them in?
Get rid of them...we don't need them.
Pretty darn suspicious how they scattered all over the place to Minnesota, Iowa, New Jersey.
What a question! He should ask other questions such as, "Did he blow up something (already)? Did they make him talk?"
All of them should have to wear tracking devices on their ankles until they depart.
You are far too kind...
:)
After 9/11 the universities were one of the first to complain about their foreign students being subjects of interest. Does the government pay the universities for foreign students? The answer is always $$$$.
One was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare trying to use his ticket from NY to MT. He got irate at the ticket counter and that's what flagged the local Chicago police officer to take him aside for questioning.
Was he trying to get to Montana from Chicago or was he trying to cash in the ticket to another destination? I wonder what caused him to be irate.
I fly frequently, I get from point A to point B 10 to 15 times a year, year after year, and never have had a situation where I needed to become irate.
Which is why Islamic militants use them...
"He tried to check in for a Chicago-to-Montana flight using an invalid ticket marked for a New York departure, Chicago police said.
El Ela raised his voice and became unruly after an employee at a Delta ticket counter refused to let him exchange the ticket for a valid one." (SunTimes)
When we get rid of Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy a few months after 911 set up a program to make it easier for students from the middle east to come here. I forget the details but I remember being pretty outraged when I read about it, I mean of all things to be focusing on after 911!
Interesting
Great idea!
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