About 1,900 Libyan students in the United States on Libyan government-funded scholarships will be able to continue their studies despite sanctions against Libya, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.
The United States and European powers imposed sanctions on the Libyan government in February in response to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's bloody crackdown on an uprising against his 41-year rule.
The United Nations, Canada, Britain and the United States approved special authorizations for the transfer of funds from a Libyan government education committee to the Ottawa-based Canadian Bureau for International Education, the State Department said.
The funds in the Libyan-North American Scholarship Program cover tuition and living allowances at schools across the United States and will allow the students to remain through May 2012, the State Department said.
Exchange students facing economic hardship because of the civil war in Libya will be able to look for work in the United States to support themselves, the State Department said.
The United States is holding more than $34 billion in frozen Libyan assets.
Basel Alashi, CBIE's vice president of international partnerships, said Thursday his organization had to obtain permits from the United Nations, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to allow the Libyan government to send the money.
"They look at this as something that was there before all these events started," Alashi said. "They wanted the program to continue."
He declined to say how much money is involved but said it's enough to keep the program going for another year. His office has received hundreds of emails from grateful and relieved students across the U.S. and another 500 in Canada.
Jaber Mazzida, 29, who is working toward a master's degree in education at the University of South Florida, said the news was a "big relief." The married father of a 1-year-old daughter said he will go back to Libya after getting his degree.
"I'll go home. I have to go home," said Mazzida, whose family has fled to Tunisia. "We have to rebuild the country. ... I would go to the front and join friends and people there."
A NATO-led coalition began striking Gadhafi's forces under a U.N. Security Council resolution to protect civilians in March. NATO assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31. It's joined by a number of Arab allies.