All 11 missing Egyptian students in U.S. in custody

All the 11 Egyptian students who failed to show up for a scheduled academic program at Montana State University have been located and put into custody, authorities said Monday.

The last two of the 11 exchange students were arrested Sunday night in Richmond, Virginia, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the ICE said in a statement.

The 11 students were part of a group of 17 Egyptian students who entered the Untied States at the John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 29, for a month-long exchange program at Montana State University to study the English language and American history and culture.

But only six of them showed up at the University for class on time.

The university, which repeatedly tried to contact the missing students, notified the Homeland Security Department and registered them as no-shows in a system to track foreign students developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

U.S. law enforcement agencies sent out a "be on the look out" request last week and conducted a nationwide search for the students.

Preliminary investigation by the ICE and the FBI had not identified any credible or imminent threat posed by the an of the 11 students, according to the ICE.

There were an estimated 1 million foreign students in the United States at any given time.

Source: Xinhua