Loading ...Trapped: 31 Yemeni students can’t return to war-torn home or stay in U.S.
Ahmed Abdulghaffar was 15 years old when he left his home in Yemen in August and arrived here for a year-long student exchange program meant to introduce Muslim teens to America.
Ahmed’s experience mirrored that of any young exchange student. He lived with a host family and went to the local high school. He made friends and joined them at the mall and the beach. He thought often of life at home, and he did not take simple luxuries, such as Florida’s dependable electricity, for granted.
But most exchange programs end with a flight home. Not so for Ahmed: Halfway through his year in the United States, Yemen descended into a civil war, closing the nation’s airports and making it impossible for him to return.
His mother, who fled the family home after it was bombed twice, put it to him plainly. “She said I need to start to search for a future here, because there is no future there,” said Ahmed, now 16.
Ahmed is one of 31 Yemeni high school students who came to this country as part of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES) in August, all of them now trapped by uncertainty. They can’t go home, and they can’t stay in the United States permanently because they are not citizens.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com