Students granted bail

Five Indian students held in detention for 15 days on charges of breaching their visa conditions were granted bail on Thursday after contesting the deportation order issued against them.

Their case has attracted diplomatic attention with the Indian High Commissioner arriving from Tripoli earlier this week to meet them. She is expected back in Malta next week.

The students were arrested at their school in Ħamrun two weeks ago after they failed to turn up for class.

The Immigration Appeals Board granted bail against a deposit of €1,000 each pending a second hearing scheduled for next week. Four students had the money in their bank account and another was waiting for a money transfer from his parents.

The students' lawyer, Leon Bencini, said there had been efforts to find an amicable solution: "A meeting between the students, the school authorities and the Indian Consulate is scheduled to iron out the differences. We want to find a solution because the students want to continue with their course work for which they paid thousands of euros".

The students are in Malta for a full academic year, studying for a diploma in logistics and management at the SSM school in Ħamrun.

The school alleged they did not attend classes regularly as stipulated by their visa conditions and reported them to the police. The police charged the students on two counts: not having enough money to sustain themselves and breaching student visa conditions by failing to attend school.

They have denied both charges, insisting there were serious mishaps in the educational service provided by the school.

After spending two days at the police depot in Floriana the students were transferred to Ta' Kandja detention facility.

The director of SSM school, Alexander Borg, had said he was in duty bound to report the students to the police when they failed to turn up at school.

"When a visa is issued to students I am responsible for them. We verbally warned them more than once and then got them to sign an agreement that they will attend school regularly. When they continued to absent themselves we were left with no option but to report them to the police," he said.

At the time, Mr Borg had insisted he would not be accepting them back at his school.