US denied visas to members of the Afghan teenage robotics team

Almaty. July 1. Silkroadnews – The US denied visas to six Afghan teenage girls who were going to take part in international robotics competitions, information portal The Verge reported.
“Six teenage girls from Afghanistan planned to come to the US to compete in the First Global Challenge robotics competition this month, but those plans were canceled after they were denied visas to enter the country. Forbes reports that the girls traveled 500 miles to Kabul for their visa interviews, and that their robot’s supplies were held in customs for months”, publication reads.
The US State Department representatives, as reported, are afraid that the components for robots provided to the Afghan team can be used by the ISIS militants.
“A set of components each team was provided with by the competition organizers included various components such as brackets, fasteners, adapters, bearings, wheels of different sizes, gears, pulleys, motors, drives, etc. The US State Department representatives had fears over ISIS use of these components on the battlefield, that’s why the components have been returned to the Afghan team with a long delay”, publication explains.
As reported, the Afghan team still managed to present their work in the competition.
“The team still managed to assemble a robot sorting the balls, this was done in a very short time - the components came only 3 weeks ago. More than 100 teams came to the competitions, including participants from Iraq, Iran and Sudan. The robot, created by the Afghan team, will also participate in the competitions, though its creators will be able to see the competition only through video calls from their hometown Afghan city of Herat”, the publication said.