As visa expires, 4 foreign students told to vacate hostel at Gujarat University

Five foreign students were injured on March 16 when a group of 20-25 people allegedly barged into their hostel and assaulted them for offering namaz during Ramzan in the hostel building. The incident had prompted visits by an Afghan and a Gambian delegation. The delegations also held meetings with Vice Chancellor Prof Neerja Gupta over safety concerns.

Among the four students asked to vacate the hostel this week, three are from Afghanistan and one is from East Africa. “The visa of these students and the terms of their scholarships have expired. Thus, their consulates too have asked them to return. This is routine work,” the Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor told The Indian Express.

As reported by The Indian Express earlier, when Consul General of Afghanistan in Mumbai Zakia Wardak on March 22 visited the university, the varsity had asked four of its seven Afghan students to vacate the hostel and campus. At the time, Gujarat University had seven students from Afghanistan. Of them, four were old students who were asked to leave within a week. There is no student from the neighbouring country at the varsity in the academic session 2023-24 after the central government’s revision of related policy.

Looking at the Taliban and the situation in Afghanistan, the ICCR (the Indian Council for Cultural Relations) admission portal for Afghanistan students was not opened this academic session, and no enrollments were done, ICCR Director Gujarat Surinder Kumar had told this paper. Meanwhile, officials at GU revealed that among these four students, paperwork of two students was pending which was completed too while the remaining two had to clear one or more subjects the process of which the University had fast-tracked.

Denying any extension in stay, the Vice Chancellor had said at the time, “Out of the remaining three, one is a PhD scholar. They will not get an extension. I had told them the day before that within a week you would return. They are in the process. Out of nine, two had already left. We have told them very clearly that you go, do not overstay here.”

There are around 300 foreign students enrolled under the ICCR scholarship in Gujarat University while the state has around 1,100 such students.

The 300 GU students — around 70 are hostel residents — are from countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Indonesia, African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mali, Mozambique, Botswana, and Kenya.

Following the incident, concerned about the safety and security of its students a delegation from the Gambian High Commission had also visited the campus. As per Gujarat University authorities over 25 students from Gambia are enrolled in different undergraduate and postgraduate programmes offered by the University.