{"id":159898,"date":"2026-03-11T01:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/159898\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T01:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:12:13","slug":"queens-students-who-were-stranded-in-middle-east-now-back-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/159898\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen’s students who were stranded in Middle East now back in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Queen’s University says a group of students who were stranded in the Middle East amid airspace closures and the ongoing war have made their way back to Canada.<\/p>\n

Sixteen students, along with Professor Stephen Lougheed, were flying home from Sri Lanka on Feb. 28 when their plane was abruptly turned around just as it was nearing Iranian airspace.<\/p>\n

They landed in Doha, Qatar, to learn Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran had begun.<\/p>\n

The group spent roughly a week in a hotel, grounded after airspace in Qatar \u2014 which has also been attacked \u2014 was shut down.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement Tuesday, a Queen’s spokesperson said the professor and his students “safely returned” to Canada, landing in Toronto on Monday night. <\/p>\n

Some students are with their families, while others have returned to Kingston, according to the spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Group returning from field study in Sri Lanka<\/p>\n

In an interview from Doha last week, Lougheed told CBC the group felt “quite safe” and that he planned to keep them at the hotel for the time being, rather than “engage in any risky behavior that might end up badly.”<\/p>\n

“It’s an odd once-in-a-lifetime experience to have to be sort of … embedded within a regional conflict, especially one within the Middle East,” the professor said at the time, describing the stress and surreal nature of what was going on.<\/p>\n

Lougheed also detailed how he’d organized a group chat so everyone could stay in contact while sheltering and initiated an open-door policy so students could talk with him about what they were going through whenever they needed to.<\/p>\n

“My students recognize the stress that I’m under, and sometimes they’re counselling me rather than the other way around,” Lougheed previously told CBC.<\/p>\n

The group was on their way back from a field study in Sri Lanka. A blog set up for the trip said it was meant to introduce the group to the country’s biodiversity and conservation challenges. <\/p>\n

\"AStephen Lougheed, a biology professor at Queen’s University, led the group of students who were stuck at a hotel in Qatar for more than a week. (CBC News)University offers students counselling<\/p>\n

An update from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) Tuesday said that, between March 4 and 8, more than 4,300 Canadians, permanent residents and family members have arrived in Canada through “direct and indirect routes from the Middle East.”<\/p>\n

GAC said it’s provided assistance, including buses to countries where commercial flights were available and booking blocks of seats.<\/p>\n

In its statement, Queen’s thanked the Canadian government for arranging transportation from Doha to Saudi Arabia where the group was able to board a flight.<\/p>\n

“We are especially thankful to Dr. Lougheed for his leadership and support of the students. He went above and beyond his role as supervisor, fostering a sense of kinship and creating a supportive, open environment that helped students navigate this challenging experience,” it read.<\/p>\n

“We also commend the students for the resilience and positivity they demonstrated during a stressful and uncertain situation.”<\/p>\n

The university said it’s organizing counselling and ongoing support for the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-159898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}