{"id":16258,"date":"2018-08-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=16258"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:11:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T16:11:35","slug":"saudi-arabian-students-forced-to-leave-camosun-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/08\/29\/saudi-arabian-students-forced-to-leave-camosun-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabian students forced to leave Camosun College"},"content":{"rendered":"

34 Saudi Arabian students studying at Camosun are being forced to leave the college before starting their fall classes.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has ordered all government-sponsored Saudi Arabian nationals studying in Canada to leave the country in response to tweets from Canadian foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland and Global Affairs Canada. Freeland tweeted that she was \u201cvery alarmed\u201d by the arrest of female Saudi activist Samar Badawi and called for the release of Badawi and her brother Raif; Global Affairs Canada then tweeted that they were \u201cgravely concerned\u201d about the activists.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has taken several measures in reaction to the tweets, including freezing all Saudi state airline Saudia flights to Toronto, transferring Saudi patients to hospitals outside Canada, and ordering an estimated 15,000 Saudi students enrolled across Canada to leave the country and study elsewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada media relations advisor Nancy Caron says that, from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada\u2019s perspective, a foreign national with a valid study permit can continue to study in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t speak to the requests made by the Saudi government to its citizens studying in Canada,\u201d says Caron.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun College Student Society external executive Fillette Umulisa says the CCSS is concerned about the situation (photo by Adam Marsh\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Camosun vice president of partnerships Geoff Wilmshurst says his heart goes out to all Saudi Arabian students and their families, and that Camosun is looking into working with the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau in Ottawa to see if the 34 students registered at Camosun for this coming fall semester can study at partner institutions in the UK.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really valued having those students that we had\u2014more than 100 at one time,\u201d says Wilmshurst. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen to them in terms of what their next steps will be; we\u2019ve been told that the Saudi Cultural Bureau\u2014which is the education division of the Saudi embassy in Ottawa\u2014will be assisting in relocation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Wilmshurst knows that relocating to a different institution is not a simple thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly have communicated that we would be willing to assist to try to find partner schools that we have in the UK that might consider taking them,\u201d says Wilmshurst. \u201cWe do want to be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 7, Saudi students were given four weeks to leave the country. At the time of writing this story, Wilmshurst told Nexus<\/i> that <\/b>the students will be able to finish up their summer semester at Camosun before leaving. (No Saudi Arabian students responded to our requests for interviews for this story.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to convey to them is we\u2019re there to support them,\u201d says Wilmshurst. \u201cOur Camosun International department is setting up a team of people who will help begin to sort out their programs, and to see what we can do to assist them in terms of any kind of transfer.\u201d (No one at Camosun International was available to speak about the matter.)<\/p>\n

Wilmshurst says that Camosun valued having the students in the college community and that the college doesn\u2019t get many students from the Middle East; he hopes that if and when the issue is resolved, the students can come back to Camosun. Supporting the students, he says, will involve looking at each individual student\u2019s academic record and providing paperwork for academic transfers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019re] trying to figure out, \u2018What are the remaining requirements they have in order to get their degrees?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll certainly provide all that documentation\u2014and any other documentation\u2014those students can take with them so that when they are being offered an opportunity to go to an institution in another country, they can at least have all the proper documentation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilmshurst says that the college\u2019s main concern is the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel for them,\u201d says Wilmshurst. \u201cWe really hope that whatever happens, they\u2019re able to complete the studies that they\u2019ve engaged in here.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive Fillette Umulisa says the CCSS has concerns around the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that the Saudi Arabian government does not appreciate being called out on human rights abuse and neglect,\u201d she says, adding that the situation has escalated quickly. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s an issue that can be talked down if both parties wish to come together and talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Umulisa says that there isn\u2019t a lot the student society can do to support the students in transition because this is a diplomatic argument.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll we can actually do right now is hope that the Saudi Arabian government acts in the best interest of its students and not disrupt education for people who are not involved in this diplomatic argument,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS), of which Camosun students are members, launched a Fairness for International Students campaign at Camosun on August 15 (see below). University of British Columbia Students\u2019 Union Okanagan president Amal Alhuwayshil is from Saudi Arabia; she was at Camosun on August 15 as part of the campaign announcement. Alhuwayshil says that there are over 250 Saudi Arabian students at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very challenging for both those students and the institution, as well as\u2014I can imagine\u2014for your students here [at] Camosun,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Umulisa says that the student society is really concerned about this situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to support the ability for individuals and government to have discussions and engage in dialogue on issues of human rights around fear of retribution,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The CCSS supports Camosun students in every way possible, says Umulisa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re able to do something,\u201d she says, \u201cwe would definitely do it.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

34 Saudi Arabian students studying at Camosun are being forced to leave the college before starting their fall classes. Saudi Arabia has ordered all government-sponsored Saudi Arabian nationals studying in Canada to leave the country in response to tweets from Canadian foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland and Global Affairs Canada. Freeland tweeted that she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-august-29-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16260,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16258\/revisions\/16260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}