India Students Deported From US Get Assistance From Etihad

On Wednesday the Middle Eastern airline carrier Etihad announced that it will assist all the Indian students that were bound for the US but were sent back to India because they were refused entry to the US, in particular the students of the two blacklisted Californian schools. Etihad released a statement which read “Any student who does not meet the requirements of the US authorities, will be assisted by Etihad Airways with travel arrangements back to their point of origin”.

Earlier the Indian national carrier, Air India, had already announced that those students headed to the two blacklisted universities, Silicon Valley University at San Jose and Northwestern Polytechnic University, Fremont, will not be accepted or allowed to board a flight for the US until the US office gives them the go-ahead.

On Sunday Air India had stopped 19 Indian students that were on their way to study at the two US universities from boarding a flight headed for San Francisco after they received a message from the US Customs and Border Protection agency.

So far almost 14 Indian students have been deported since the two institutions were being scrutinized by US authorities. The Gulf airline Etihad that has invested in the domestic airline Jet Airways said that it “understands current concerns of such students who have booked travel on Etihad Airways’ flights to the United States”.

The airline say that “in recent days a number of Indian nationals have been refused entry to the USA due to visa irregularities identified during checks carried out by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP),”. So students that have booked a flight on Etihad Airways would be entitled to refunds, after deductions, as per the company norms on cancellation of a ticket. They can also re-schedule their flight once without paying anything extra for a later date to solve all the issues without anything extra cost.

Nonetheless students should contact the nearest US consulate to check if their documentations are all in order and whether he can travel.