DAMMAM, 28 February 2003 — Khalid was getting worried. He had not heard from his son, Siraj. The plane should have landed at J.F.K. Airport hours earlier. It was not like his son to not call his family to let them know of his safe arrival.

Khalid’s worst fears came true. Siraj’s friend called from JFK. He wanted to know if Siraj had boarded the New York bound plane from Karachi. “I went to receive him, but he never came out!”

“You cannot imagine the agony we suffered and are still going through,” Khalid, an expatriate Pakistani living in the Kingdom, told Arab News. “My wife and family live in Karachi. I was spending hours on the phone trying to calm everyone and also get whatever information I could get from New York.”

Siraj was picked up at the airport by FBI officials. He was simply told that there was a complaint against him which needed to be investigated. His friends contacted a human rights group, which was useful in getting Siraj out on bail.

“We got news that the judge had allowed Siraj out on a bail of $500 and were elated. The bail amount shows how minor the charge was. But unfortunately, our happiness did not last. The minute Siraj came out on bail he was immediately booked by INS (immigration and naturalization services). He was put back in prison and has been there since December. He is allowed to make only one phone call per day within the United States. We have no access to him. I have no first hand information about my son. I feel so powerless, so helpless, so anguished.”

Siraj went to the United States in 2001 on a student visa. All his documents are correct and still valid. He was picked up by FBI because he was working at a car rental place in violation of his work authorization. Foreign students are allowed to work only 25 hours per week and this must be in close proximity to the school one is enrolled in. Very few students follow this rule.

Schools and universities look the other way because most foreign students have to work longer than 25 hours to make ends meet.

Siraj’s father told Arab News: “After Sept. 11 people in the United States have become less tolerant of Muslims. The car company which hired my son and had no problem before reported him to the FBI themselves. When he was granted bail by the judge in a civil court he should have been allowed to continue with his studies and sort out the legal matter. But INS put him in jail. There are over 60 student cases ahead of him, so he has to wait for his turn. And God knows when that will be.

“In the meantime, he is not only missing his studies but also going through a terrible trauma and so are we. I have already spent thousands of dollars on a lawyer for him. But it seems even the law cannot fight the current system. The INS seems to be totally unhurried.”

Khalid was especially bitter about the lack of sympathy from the Pakistan Consulate in New York.

“It’s a shame that an American civil rights group was kinder and more helpful to my son than his country’s embassy,” he said.