5 more Afghan scholars missing from UW

Five visiting Afghan scholars have been reported missing by the University of Washington after failing to show up to scheduled training sessions at the university over the past week.

The five scholars — part of a group of 38 from Kabul University — may have simply decided to "disappear into the fabric of American society" given the situation in Afghanistan, said UW spokesman Norm Arkans. In all, seven Afghan scholars have vanished from the UW this year. Two scholars from an initial spring group of 15 may have fled to Canada.

Still, faculty organizers say the Afghan program, which is aimed at enabling civil servants to rebuild their country, should continue.

The latest missing students, all men aged 30 and younger, were visiting the UW as part of a three-month program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). They were supposed to be working on master's degrees. By disappearing, the students aren't breaking any laws but are violating the terms of their student visas, Arkans said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was told about the five missing students last week and is actively investigating the case, said spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.

All the students speak good English and have at least a bachelor's degree — and in some cases, a master's — said Sanjeev Khagram, a UW associate professor of public affairs and international studies who led the first group of students.

Many of the students hold prominent government positions dealing with schooling, water, infrastructure and other vital programs, while others work for agencies such as the United Nations.

"There is always going to be attrition. Afghanistan is collapsing. As a refugee from Uganda myself, I can understand the incredible pressures they are under from being in the line of fire every day," Khagram said. "I'd be very saddened if a program such as this stopped just because a few go awry."

Leslie Breitner, a UW public affairs lecturer who is helping oversee the curriculum for the latest group, agreed.

"Life is one big cost-benefit analysis," she said. "The benefit to the people of Afghanistan ... is worth more than the cost of a couple of people taking liberties with being in this country."

Breitner said there is no extra security for the remaining 33 students, who are living at the Extended Stay America hotel in Bellevue.

"With their hearts, they have told us that they are really committed to doing this," Breitner said. "They are not children. We don't lock them in at night; we don't put ankle bracelets on them. It's up to the [U.S.] government to do the due diligence and provide them permission to be here."

The first two students who went missing never returned to Afghanistan, Arkans said.

One student e-mailed UW officials to tell them he had left the program to care for an ailing relative in Los Angeles, according to a UW Police report. He e-mailed later to say the relative had passed away and he would be helping to transport the body back to Kabul. He e-mailed the UW a final time on April 30 to say he'd arrived back in Afghanistan, according to police reports.

But UW officials were unable to contact the man in Afghanistan or verify with authorities that he'd arrived.

The student had mentioned Canada several times in his e-mails, which were eventually traced to a Canadian Internet Service Provider, according to police reports.

In the case of the second student, a UW representative showed up at the Extended Stay to drive him to the airport in mid-May, according to police reports. The student told the representative "he was going to stay behind a week or so before heading back." The UW representative "thought this to be common practice among some exchange students, so did not think much about it," according to police reports.

In a subsequent e-mail in late May, the second student asked the UW representative to cancel his ticket, as he was in Canada and would make his own way back to Afghanistan. That was the last the UW heard from him.

There has been no word at all from the latest five students to go missing, and authorities are not speculating as to their whereabouts. Arkans said the scholars who remain in Seattle are "dismayed" their colleagues have disappeared.

Khagram said USAID provided a grant of about $500,000 for the first group of students, much of it to pay for travel and accommodation. The students met with local community leaders, politicians and business people while in Seattle, he said.

Khagram said the students described the conditions in Afghanistan — how they had to put on bulletproof vests every day and faced constant danger. In winter, they worked in offices without heat and were constantly dealing with violence, corruption and dysfunctional infrastructure, he said.

"It was heartbreaking to listen to them," said Khagram, who said he was 4 years old when his own family was expelled from Uganda by then-dictator Idi Amin. His family was legally sponsored to come to the U.S. under political asylum, he added.

"We have hosted international scholars and fellows for over 20 years and something like this is highly unusual," said Sandra O. Archibald, dean of the UW's Evans School of Public Affairs, in a release.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com