A British Muslim family of 11 said US authorities prevented them from boarding a plane last week to travel from London’s Gatwick Airport to Disneyland, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
The family told the publication that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not give them a reason for why they weren’t allowed to take the pre-approved trip, which had been scheduled for months.
The family said U.S. officials turned them away at the departure lounge and the airline, which was not identified in the report, informed them they would not be refunded for their $13,340 in airfare. The family members were also forced to return items they had bought in the airport’s duty-free stores.
“I have never been more embarrassed in my life,” Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, one of the family members, told The Guardian. “I work here, I have a business here. But we were alienated.”
In response to TPM’s request for comment from DHS, a spokesperson from U.S. Customs and Border Protection emailed a statement outlining its practices that asserted “religion, faith, or spiritual beliefs of an international traveler are not determining factors about his/her admissibility into the U.S. Under U.S. immigration law.”
The statement also specified that travelers must overcome more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility, including health-related, security-related, and documentation requirements, in order to enter the country.
I’m asking, as an American, why this happened. I think we have the right to ask that.
Query: How can the airline refuse to refund the ticket price?
From Stella Creasy’s article on The Guardian site:
People suck, and we Americans are sucking harder all the time. Merry ***ing Christmas.
What does the claim of the travel being “pre-approved” mean in this context?
Did the Donald pull up their drawbridge?
I can’t imagine trudging out to Gatwick with nine kids in tow, checking in, going through security, starting your holiday at duty free, making your way to the gate in preparation for your flight with everyone chatting about what they want to see at Disneyland and THEN being told you can’t get on the flight AND YOUR $13,340 IN AIRFARE WILL NOT BE REFUNDED.
I would’ve probably been arrested before I left the airport.