Seminary studies: 165 foreign students without valid visas

Home Department says seminaries do not follow up on the immigration status of their students.

LAHORE:

There are 658 foreign from various countries studying at and residing in eight seminaries in the province, of which 165 lack valid visas, a Home Department report says.

It says the administrations of the seminaries do not follow up on the immigration status of their students.

The report says 551 foreign students are studying in Madrassa Arabia in Raiwind, out of which 13 do not have valid visas.

There are 41 foreign students studying at Madrassa Arabia in Makki Masjid in Gujrat of which three foreign students do not have valid immigration documents.

Of the 20 foreign students in Madrassa Arabia Zakria Masjid in Rawalpindi and 28 in Madrassa Arabia Zahoorul Islam Akwal in Talagang, 20 students have expired visas.

At Madrassa Arabia Madina in Attock, all three foreign students lack proper documents.

Of the three foreign students at Madrassatul Hasnain in Faisalabad, one student has an expired visa.

All five foreign students at Jamia Qadria in Khanewal are without valid visas, the report adds.

Of the four foreign students at Madrassa Shamsul Uloom in Rahim Yar Khan, one does not have a valid visa.

According to the report, there are 56 students are from Thailand, 44 from Indonesia, 17 from China, three from Kazakhstan , five from Kyrgyzstan , seven from Philippines , five from Sudan, five from Malaysia, two from Tanzania , two from Ethiopia , two from Russia, two from Jordan, two from Bangladesh, two from Tunis , and one each from one Cambodia, Djibouti, Kenya, Myanmar, Sierra Leon and Turkey.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2013.