Watch: Afghanistan's all-girl robotics team lands in DC after visas denied twice

Many rejoiced as theteam of female teenager robotics builders from Afghanistan, who twicehad their Visas denied,finally arrivedin Washington DC tonight.

On two occassions they had trekked about 500 miles from Herat, in western Afghanistan, to the American embassy in Kabul to apply for the one-week travel visas, and they cried when they were refused.

The girls are working on a robot that can sort balls, which will compete against 163 other machines in a tournament called the FIRST Robotics Competition. When their visas were refused, they planned to compete via Skype. Thankfully, that is unnecessary now.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Watch as the Afghan Ambassador to the US,Dr Hamdullah Mohib, greets the team at the airport.

This week many online were angry to learn theteam would be denied entry. This grew as details became published about how hard they worked to make it into the competition.

Many saw them as innocent victims of the harsher immigration barriers, especially from predominantly Muslim countries,taken up under US President DonaldTrump's administration.

ButTrump himself urged the immigration authorities to reverse course, and the team was allowed in.

Though some social media users were unwilling to let the Afghan girls who had worked so hard share the spotlight.