Hyderabad: It was a double blow for 22 Telugu students who reached the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport early on Sunday morning after being deported from the US.
The students, who had faced almost 24 hours of interrogation by US immigration officials at the New York airport, were held up again at the Hyderabad airport for another six hours by various airlines, demanding their return ticket fare.
Deputy Chief Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, who also arrived at the Hyderabad airport from Kashmir at the same time after attending the funeral of former J&K CM Mufti Mohd Sayeed, came to the rescue of the students by negotiating with the airlines staff after which they were allowed to leave.
Seeing the deputy CM, the students and their parents approached him and urged him to ensure that the airline staff let the students go.
Mr Ali spent nearly two hours convincing the airline staff to allow the students to leave after collecting their details and the parents signing documents promising to pay the return ticket amount as soon as possible.
An Air India staff said, “Normally the ticket fare would be '70,000 to '80,000 for the US if booked in advance. Since these students went there on a study visa, they purchased one-way tickets. With their immediate deportation, we had to provide them on-the-spot tickets, which cost almost double, up to Rs 1.60 lakh. If students don't pay, the airlines have to suffer losses. Why should we bear that loss for no fault of ours?” The students meanwhile alleged ill-treatment by US immigration officials who even handcuffed them.
“When we landed at New York airport, they read out the names of some low-profile universities and asked who had taken admissions in them. When we said yes, they took us to a separate room and interrogated us for almost 24 hours without food and water.
"Some of us were even handcuffed. They asked us to go back and apply to other US universities without clarifying. They threatened a 10-year ban for US entry if we refused to go back,” said K. Vikranth, a student.
