A Cape Town man’s dream holiday in the US turned into a nightmare when he was detained for more than 24 hours at an airport.
Also read: CoCT staff trained to stamp passports to curb airport queues
Bjorn Taylor (37) was planning on visiting his sister, who lives in America with her husband and two children.
He departed on 31 July and planned to stay for three months. In preparation for his first trip abroad, Taylor applied for a tourist visa, as his sister and her husband would be financially responsible for him.
Explore Cape Town and its surroundings with these incredible deals on cars for under R100 000. Find car listings here.
However, instead of meeting his sister at Dulles International Airport, the qualified accountant from Ravensmead was instead held in a cell and denied his right to communicate with family or the South African Embassy.
‘I arrived just after 5:30am,’ he told Cape Argus.
‘At the first station of customs, I was asked for the reason for my stay and how much money I had and if I owned a bank card or credit card, to which I said I didn’t and that I was visiting my sister who lives here with her husband and their two children.’
‘During the second station, I was repeatedly asked by the customs officer why I was coming into the country and what type of work my sister and her husband were doing, which was in the financial sector.’
‘They already made up their minds that I was coming over to work, which I said was incorrect. I came to visit as it was declared on the Visa DS 160 form by my sister that they would be financially responsible for me,’ he added.
His passport and cellphone were confiscated and he was subsequently detained in a room for 17 hours and later in a cell for nearly 10 hours. He was not given the option to call his family or the embassy, IOL reports.
Furthermore, his luggage was searched for suspicious materials or objects.
Taylor said he was not offered anything to eat or drink. Instead, he only received a meal containing beans a few hours later.
He was then told that he would have to take a connecting flight via New Jersey back to South Africa and that he would be handcuffed while walking through the airport.
‘They handcuffed me and said I am a criminal? I asked if they could cover the cuffs with one piece of clothing but they refused,’ he said.
‘They took me to the runway and the flight was delayed. I was then taken back to the same room where I had to wait for hours and was later told the flight was cancelled and by then it was already 9pm.’
‘They only brought me some Pringles chips and a chocolate muesli bar and some cheddar biscuits.’
The next day, around noon, Taylor was reportedly given cereal and told his flight was at 4pm, albeit delayed.
He was cut off from all communication with his family and again handcuffed before he was placed on a direct flight to South Africa.
He returned to Cape Town on Friday.
‘I felt like they were profiling me and discriminating against me the whole time that I sat there. There was not one white person in that room, and in that space, we only saw Ethiopians or Chinese etc,’ he said.
According to his sister, Ophelia and her husband, Patrio, the couple made more than 30 calls to the airline to enquire about Taylor’s well-being.
They said they instead got ‘hostile attitudes’ and claimed that Taylor had an invalid or fake visa or that he had suspicious material with him.
‘This was discrimination and his civil rights were impacted,’ Patrio said. ‘We are filing a lawsuit for discrimination and his civil rights being violated and there were four customs officers involved.’
The family has since lodged a complaint and reported it to the South African Consulate-General in Los Angeles, Customs and Border Protection, and the airline.
‘I told them repeatedly that he was going to visit us and had a tourist visa,’ Ophelia said.
According to IOL, customs officers claimed that they were third-party individuals and that Taylor had signed his rights away.
Cape {town} Etc discount: Looking for things to do in the city, at half the price? Get exclusive offers here.
Also read:
Flights resume at Cape Town International Airport after power outage
Picture: Anna Gru / Unsplash
