Eric Garcetti urged Indian college students to observe preventive measures (File)

New Delhi:

Addressing considerations relating to the security of Indian college students finding out within the United States, US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti urged college students to stay vigilant and take acceptable security precautions.

The envoy emphasised that college students ought to keep linked with friends and to make the most of campus security sources to boost their consciousness and preparedness.

In an latest interview with ANI, Eric Garcetti acknowledged the distressing incidents involving Indian college students. Emphasising that such incidents can occur statistically in a rustic of this scale, he urged the scholars to stay vigilant and take enough security measures.

“First and foremost, any families, and I’ve talked to some of those families who have faced a tragedy with their own son or daughter. I mean, our hearts go out. We take the justice issues very seriously of bringing to justice any perpetrators with, you know, a quarter million now a year, statistically, this is going to happen. But that’s not acceptable to a parent if it happens to your child,” Eric Garcetti said.

Expressing condolences to affected households, he underscored the US authorities’s dedication to making sure justice for victims and holding perpetrators accountable.

Urging Indian college students to observe preventive measures, Eric Garcetti suggested college students to be vigilant and familiarise themselves with secure neighbourhoods and to observe recommendation given to travellers worldwide.

“The same sort of advice we give to travellers when they go around the world, including in places like India, is that we know that these things can happen, but you can play a role in lessening the risk,” he remarked.

The envoy underlined the significance of travelling in teams, staying linked with friends, and avoiding dangerous behaviours, together with unlawful drug use. Additionally, he inspired college students to have interaction with campus security sources to boost their consciousness and preparedness.

With roughly 2,45,000 Indian college students pursuing schooling on American campuses yearly, security has develop into a paramount subject for each college students and their households.

Responding to considerations in regards to the notion of security in American faculty cities in comparison with different international locations like Australia and New Zealand, Eric Garcetti reassured that whereas challenges exist, crime charges, particularly violent crime, have decreased considerably in recent times.

“No, I think there’s always just safe things to do, but there’s not. I mean, crime has gone down, violent crime, especially in the last few years. It’s much safer than it was in the 1970s and 1980s,” Eric Garcetti affirmed.

He attributed the heightened consciousness of incidents to the speedy dissemination of data by way of social media.

Asserting that the United States is a secure vacation spot for Indian college students, Eric Garcetti prolonged a heat welcome and affirmed the nation’s appreciation for its worldwide scholar group.

“We encourage Indian students to come. We love our Indian students,” he mentioned.

He emphasised that security precautions are important whatever the vacation spot, urging college students to prioritise their well-being wherever they select to pursue their schooling.

Notably, a number of distressing incidents have been reported these days from the US involving Indian nationals or individuals of Indian origin.

As many as 5 Indian college students have been reported useless in separate incidents within the first two months of 2024.

In March itself, a 25-year-old Indian scholar went lacking from the Cleveland space of the US, following which his household has urged the External Affairs Ministry to seek out their son after receiving a “ransom call.”

Mohammed Abdul Arafat, a local of Hyderabad, went to the US for his masters in IT from Cleveland University in May 2023 however has been lacking since March 7, 2024.

His father, Mohd Saleem, mentioned that after ten days, they acquired a telephone name the place the individual was saying that their son (Abdul Arafat) had been kidnapped and requested for a USD 1200 ransom.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)