11 Egyptian Exchange Students Vanish After Arriving in the U.S.

By Linda Orlando

Ten days ago a group of students from Cairo arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The 17 students were headed to Montana State University for a month-long program on English language instruction and U.S. history and culture. According to U.S. authorities and university officials, the men arrived in the U.S. with valid visas. They were scheduled to participate in an exchange program Montana State arranged with Mansoura University in Mansoura, Egypt.

Six of the Egyptian men showed up on schedule at the Bozeman, MT, campus, but the remaining 11 have not been seen since their arrival in New York. FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko told reporters that when the 11 hadn’t turned up by the end of last week, the FBI issued a message to state and local law enforcement to keep a lookout for the students. "At this point, all they have done is not show up for a scheduled academic program," Kolko said. "There is no threat associated with these men."

The United States government tightened the student visa process after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, because of the discovery that four of the hijackers that day had entered the United States on foreign student visas. Although the visas of the students are valid, a search for the men has begun. They are between 18 and 22 years old, according to law enforcement officials, but the U.S. Immigration and custom Enforcement office declined to make their names public.

University spokeswoman Cathy Conover said the school has tried repeatedly to contact the student, including sending e-mails. When those attempts failed, the school contacted Homeland Security officials and registered the students as "no-shows" in the nationwide system that was developed after 9/11 to track the location of foreign students. "We hope this [situation] doesn’t cast doubt on this program because we think it’s important to have international students on our campus and in our community," Conover said.

Once the students are located, the government will probably seek to send the students home for violating the terms of their visas.