I guess the global robotics contest isn’t so “global” after all. The United States has reportedly denied five Gambian high school teenagers visas, consequently prohibiting them from accompanying their invention to a prestigious international competition taking place in the U.S.
According to Al Jazeera, the Gambian students are the second team that was refused entry into the U.S. to attend the FIRST Global robotics event that is taking place in the nation’s capital from July 16 to 18. An all-girls team from Afghanistan was also denied.
Moktar Darboe, the director for Gambia’s ministry of higher education, research, science and technology, told Al Jazeera that the team that was made up of high school students ages 17 to 18, were “very disappointed.”
“They put in so much effort into building this, and now, after all the sacrifice and energy they put in, they have been left disheartened,” Darboe said.
The robot the teens created, which is a ball sorting machine, will be sent off to the U.S. without them, with the Gambian American Association representing them at the event. The teens will have to watch the event over Skype.
As Al Jazeera notes, FIRST Global Challenge is open to students ages 15 to 18 across the world, with 158 countries, including 40 African countries being represented. Currently, only the teams from Afghanistan and Gambia have had their visas denied.
Darboe said that they were given no explanation for the refusal, and were denied shortly after their interview at the U.S. embassy in the capital of Banjul in April. The students had to pay $170 each for their visa application.
“We were only told we did not qualify and that we could try again,” Darboe said. “Their parents had to sacrifice a lot to pay this fee.”
Fatoumata Ceesay, the team’s programmer told the news site that the team overcame working in less than ideal conditions, working hard day and night, with little guidance over the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Gassam said that she was disappointed that she would not be able to represent her home country and “show the world [that] ‘yes, we can do it’”
“But we’re not giving up, despite the challenges we face, we still continue to work hard,” she said. “Next year it will be somewhere else, so I think next year we have hope to get there.”
Read more at Al Jazeera.
