{"id":398210,"date":"2017-07-05T08:09:43","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T08:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/07\/05\/us-denies-visas-to-gambia-teens-in-global-robotics-contest\/"},"modified":"2017-07-05T08:09:43","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T08:09:43","slug":"us-denies-visas-to-gambia-teens-in-global-robotics-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/05\/us-denies-visas-to-gambia-teens-in-global-robotics-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"US denies visas to Gambia teens in global robotics contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The United States has denied visas to five teenage students from Gambia competing in a prestigious international robotics contest in Washington, the team\u2019s leader said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The teens found the rejection \u201cvery disheartening,\u201d said Mucktarr M.Y. Darboe, who is also a director in the largely Muslim West African nation\u2019s ministry of higher education.<\/p>\n

Darboe said the students were not given a reason for the visa denials in April, and he called the decision \u201cdisappointing and unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gambia team is not alone. An all-female team from Afghanistan also was denied visas.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Embassy in Banjul could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Tiny Gambia has been through dramatic change in recent months, ousting via elections a longtime dictator, Yahya Jammeh, whose administration was accused of human rights abuses. The new administration, inaugurated in January, has promised widespread democratic reforms.<\/p>\n

Gambia\u2019s government has put forth the money for another round of U.S. visa applications for the robotics team members, and the teens are being interviewed again Wednesday, Darboe said. The students\u2019 creation was being shipped Tuesday to the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will go for an interview and hope for the best,\u201d he said. Each student had to pay a fee of more than $160 for the visas and travel for the interviews.<\/p>\n

For months, the team has worked on a machine that sorts balls as part of an effort to simulate solutions for separating contaminates from water.<\/p>\n

FIRST Global holds the annual robotics competition to encourage learning in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, around the world. It invites one team from each country in an effort to build bridges, organizers said. This year\u2019s competition takes place from July 16-18.<\/p>\n

Gambia team member Fatoumata Ceesay, 17, said she hopes their second interview will get them to the U.S., but she was not optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing knowing that we are the only two countries that aren\u2019t going to take part in the competition,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would be an experience to see and discover other robots and ask questions and exchange ideas with others. It\u2019s more than 160 countries, so we\u2019d have the chance to mingle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aspiring engineering student said she was grateful for the opportunity to work with the team and learn about building robots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve worked on a robot \u2026 The experience is so amazing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

If team members are denied visas again, the Gambian American association will represent the robot at the competition, Ceesay said.<\/p>\n

Joe Sestak, the president of FIRST Global, said he has already promised the Gambia and Afghanistan teams that they will be Skyping into the competition as their robots are presented. \u201cWe still are making them a part of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan has had a U.S. visa refusal rate of 75 percent and Gambia 70 percent, Sestak said.<\/p>\n

Overall, he called the visa approval rate unprecedented, saying that \u201cwe had an extraordinarily fair process.\u201d FIRST provided letters of support and informed teams about the questions that might be asked during interviews.<\/p>\n

Forty African nations will be among those attending the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Gambia I feel just as saddened. We started this effort in Africa,\u201d Sestak said, adding that his organization hopes to hold the competition in various countries in the future to encourage wider attendance.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States has denied visas to five teenage students from Gambia competing in a prestigious international robotics contest in Washington, the team\u2019s leader said Tuesday. The teens found the rejection \u201cvery disheartening,\u201d said Mucktarr M.Y. Darboe, who is also a director in the largely Muslim West African nation\u2019s ministry of higher education. 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