Saudi students ‘victims of racism’

JEDDAH: Saudi students sometimes face racial discrimination in the universities of six European states.
They are Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Slovenia, said Ali bin Abdullah bin Saqr, Saudi cultural attache in Austria.
Discrimination was one major problem faced by 600 Saudi students studying in universities of these countries, an online newspaper quoted Saqr as saying.
He has advised Saudi students to stay away from protests, demonstrations and other places where they might encounter danger.
He said that the cultural attache’s office and the staff in the Saudi embassies deal with the problems of racial discrimination, if and when they arise.
Saqr said that the cultural attache’s office had recently noticed that police in the Czeck Republic had become strict about granting and renewing residence permits.
He said that the Saudi Embassy was trying to resolve the issues.
He said that the admission offices of the universities provided assistance to the office of the cultural attache which looks after Saudi students in the six countries.
He did, however, warn students against bypassing the attache’s office in matters related to education.
Many countries such as Hungary have expressed willingness to take more Saudi students but there have been some problems in Austria, Saqr said.
Saudi students will soon return to Slovakia for studies; they were stopped from going there because of problems in getting residence permits, he said.
Saqr said that most of the Saudi students were studying medicine, health studies, engineering, economics and accountancy.