Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Friends of humanity: Egypt should allow students to pursue their studies abroad

The Vienna-based friends of humanity organization called in a letter sent to Egypt on Tuesday for providing an urgent radical solution to the issue of Palestinian students who study in foreign universities and cannot leave the Gaza Strip because of the closure of the Rafah border crossing.

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The Vienna-based friends of humanity organization called in a letter sent to Egypt on Tuesday for providing an urgent radical solution to the issue of Palestinian students who study in foreign universities and cannot leave the Gaza Strip because of the closure of the Rafah border crossing.

Friends of humanity underlined that more than 700 Palestinian university students cannot travel to join their universities abroad in foreign and Arab countries.

The organization pointed out that the closure of the Rafah crossing has caused many of them to drop out last academic year 2007-2008 while they are likely to fail to attend the mid-term exams for the first semester of the current academic year 2008-2009 in case the restrictions on their travel out of Gaza continues.

The organization added that tens of students who have been privileged to get admissions or scholarships from well-established international universities are threatened to loose this opportunity of education abroad for the same reason.

The organization underscored that more that 3, 500 stranded Gazans who are residents and work in other countries have been prevented for more than 60 months to travel to resume their jobs or join their families. 

The organization denounced the Egyptian authorities for playing a role in tightening the siege on Gaza, and urge it to cease its support for the attempts of isolating one and a half million Palestinians in the huge prison of Gaza and to facilitate the supply of medicine and food and construction materials

The organization highlighted that the grave travel restrictions imposed on the Gaza people pose a violation of the humanitarian law which prohibits mass punishment