An Aussie man said he was detained and subjected to both a strip-search and a cavity search in the US ‘cos of a widely unknown entry requirement after he tried to go on holiday.
The absolutely cooked tale comes from 23-year-old Victorian student Jack Dunn, who told his story to The Guardian.
According to the pub, Jack was planning on heading over to the US and then travelling to Mexico and South America. He’d been saving to go travelling for more than six months.
The Guardian reported Jack applied for a visa waiver to his trip. But he didn’t know about a specific requirement for that waiver.
Essentially, if you enter the US on a visa waiver you need to have a return flight booked. Or you need to have travel booked to a country that doesn’t border the US.
As pointed out by the publication, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) Smartraveller website links out to a US Government site. Under the visa waiver section of the site, it doesn’t explicitly say you’ll be detained and deported if you don’t have onwards travel booked.
Jack landed in Honolulu, Hawaii but was interrogated by a US Customs and Border Protection Officer. Because he hadn’t booked travel after Mexico — which shares a border with the US — he was refused entry into the country.
His claims honestly sound like something out of a nightmare. While he was detained, an airline worker gave him their phone so he could book a trip out of Mexico. But Jack didn’t have wifi or mobile data, so couldn’t transfer money from his savings to book the flight to another South American country.
According to Dunn, the customs officer returned before he could continue booking the flight. The officer made the airline worker take their phone back.
“I was trying to explain to the [customs officer] that I just needed internet to transfer money across,” Jack told News.com.au.
“She seemed baffled I had money in two seperate accounts but I’ve always done that.”
It’s really scary stuff, particularly given the fact borders have reopened and international travel is back on the rise. I mean, we’ve all seen those absolutely fucked queues for the passport office in Sydney.
Earlier this week, queues stretched all the way from DFAT’s office to Central Station.
Lines all the way to Central Station at the Sydney Passport Office @dfat pic.twitter.com/JSdI2GD64e
— Georgia de Mestre (@georgiademestre) June 6, 2022
So it’s clear people have travel on the brain. And it’s pretty scary to think that important visa information — like the requirement which affected Jack Dunn — isn’t clearly visible on the Smartraveller site.
“Obviously [this rule] should be added to the Smartraveller website because everyone goes there to check the rules,” he told The Guardian.
“I don’t want anyone else going through what I want through, it’s just not right.”
The rest of Jack’s story is even more cooked. He said he was eventually taken to a detention centre where he was strip searched and cavity searched for contraband.
He didn’t have any way of contacting his parents. He claimed he was put in a cell, slept on a concrete floor, and bunked with a prisoner who’d left faeces and blood on the walls, per The Guardian.
Jack told News.com.au he spent around 30 hours in prison.
“I was kind of thinking I would never get out,” he said.
After what sounds like an extremely traumatising experience, he was sent back to Sydney.
The Guardian saw transcripts of Dunn’s interrogation. Apparently, the officer asked Dunn about the fact he didn’t have enough money in his account to book an onwards flight. They also questioned him about if he had the funds to support himself in the US.
He was denied entry ‘cos he didn’t have a ticket for somewhere “other than a contiguous territory or adjacent island”.
They said he wasn’t allowed into the US “because of [his] inability to overcome the presumption of an intended immigrant”.
The fact this is seen as an acceptable response to any offence, accidental or not, is really fucking abhorrent.
A spokesperson for the CBP repeated that visa waiver applicants need to have a round-trip ticket in a statement to News.com.au.
“In addition, applicants should be able demonstrate access to sufficient funds to support themselves for the intended period of their stay and to proof sufficient ties or equities to the home country,” they said.
DFAT told The Guardian that travellers should check with the embassy, consulate or immigration department of places they’re travelling to if they have questions about evidence they need to provide.
“All of DFAT’s Smartraveller travel advisories, including for the United States of America, observe that: ‘Every country or territory decides who can enter or leave through its borders’,” a spokesperson said.
“‘For specific information about the evidence you’ll need to enter a foreign destination, including Covid-19 vaccinations and test, check with the nearest embassy, consulate or immigration department of the destination you’re entering’.”
So if you’re thinking about booking overseas flights anytime soon, remember to look out for fucked loopholes like this.
