Algeria’s embassy in Britain solves the problem of pupils stranded in Portsmouth

An official from the Algerian consulate in UK visited Portsmouth to follow the issue of Algerian pupils who went there for an educational trip, and which turned to a real dilemma.

 Parents of the Algerian kids said that the Algerian diplomacy reached Portsmouth on Saturday evening, and stood on the circumstances where they reside, and began to address the situation, particularly to provide medical treatment for the sick children, at the expense of the embassy, and solve the problem of accommodation and lessons, or deport them to Algeria as soon as possible if it is necessary.

The Algerian pupils faced difficult problems of accommodation and feeding, because the British school refused to provide these services because the agency which organized the trip did not pay the receivables.

For his part, the owner of LC Tour said that what he called “a turmoil that marred the program” was the result of a problem in transferring funds.

“The school did not take into account the value of 10% of the receivables which we paid for assurance. It refused to provide lessons of the Algerian pupils. The problem of funds transfer was also the cause of the lack of accommodation and feeding and the families that were supposed to receive them refused to keep them in their houses. The British school refused to provide a 24 hours notice for the arrival of funds which were transferred two days before the pupils’ arrival to the UK” , LC Tour’s owner Mr. Shayeb explained.

“The Algerian pupils began receiving lessons on Friday evening, and will be compensated for the money they paid from their own account, to cover the costs of staying at the center which received £50 for each one of them (about 7000 DA, not to mention the expenses of feeding. The kids paid these expenses from their pocket money which they carried with them when they went to the UK”, he told Echorouk.

However, parents of those kids denied this fact; “The tragedy of our children continued in the UK and what happened was the responsibility of the agency because we have paid dues and it is the agency which did not transfer money in the right time. There should be judicial follow-up against the agency”, one of the Algerian fathers Mr. J. Boualem said.