Deported students stranded at Hyderabad airport

The 16 students from the Telugu states - Andhra Pradesh and Telangana who were deported from the United States had to undergo another ordeal even after landing back home at the international airport in Hyderabad as they alleged that they were stranded for over six hours at the airport.

The students landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Saturday night but claimed that they had been kept waiting due to some issue about the return ticket fares with the airline they travelled in. They also said that their documents checking took longer time than needed and the parents who had been waiting for them approached Telangana deputy chief minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali and sought his intervention in the issue.

Mahmood Ali immediately asked the airline officials to allow the students to leave the airport as they already faced issues in the US and informed that the students were allowed to leave the airport after his intervention.

The students stated that they have suffered financial loss as they have been sent back after spending Rs 3-4 lakh on the admission process. Last year, Air India stopped 19 students from boarding its flight to San Francisco at the Hyderabad airport on the grounds that the two universities to which they had sought admission were blacklisted. However, the universities namely Silicon Valley in San Jose and North Western Polytechnic College in Fremont in California denied being blacklisted by the US government.

Over 20 students were deported on January 2 from the US and alleged that they were even handcuffed at the New York airport by the US authorities.