Saudis head home

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 10, 2001 | by Hans S. Nichols, | John Berlau

Of the more than 5,500 Saudi students in the United States, 300 have gone home since Sept. 11, according to the Saudi Arabian Embassy. While hundreds of homeward-bound Saudis have complained of harassment by immigration authorities since the terrorist attacks, the Saudi ambassador refuted the "exaggerated repons about cases of violence against Saudi nationals." According to the State Department, the Saudi Arabian government attracted attention to the matter when it agreed to provide roundtrip tickets to students wishing to return home in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Of the 547,867 foreign students in the United States for the 2000-2001 academic year (see "Present, But Unaccounted For" p. 21), 36,858 hailed from the Middle East, up 5 percent from two years ago, according to the Institute of International Education. The largest increases came from Iraq (a 38 percent jump), Lebanon (26 percent) and the region controlled by the Palestinian Authority (13.4 percent). The State Department has not announced any plans to review its student-visa-application process.