Newlyweds barred from entering US for honeymoon because ‘groom is Muslim’

A newlywed British couple was detained at Los Angeles International Airport for 26 hours and later deported to London because the ‘groom is Muslim’.

The news made headlines after the couple voiced their resentment upon being treated like criminals just because the groom was a Muslim. Natasha Politakis, 29 and Ali Gul, 32, belong from West London and they had recently tied the knot.

The couple was very excited for their honeymoon and they spent £7,000 for a two-week honeymoon to Los Angeles, Hawaii and Las Vegas. Little did they know that all their plans will go down the drain as they were detained at the Lon Angeles airport as soon as they landed.

According to Politakis and Gul, they were separated from the rest of the people arriving at the airport and were taken to a room. They remained detained at the airport for 26 hours and were never provided with a reason for the ill-treatment. The couple assumes that they were handled this way because of US Present Donald Trump’s immigration laws and his attempt to ban Muslims from entering the US.

“I am in utter shock that this has happened. We had just got married, we were on our way to our honeymoon as excited as anything and never expected that we would be deported,” The Sun quoted Politakis as saying.

“We were treated like criminals and we had all the relevant documentation and answered all their questions. It’s not okay to treat people like that.”

“As far as we knew before we left everything was fine, but as soon as we got there they wouldn’t let us in.”

“We believe since Trump was elected, they took one look at his name, thought he was Muslim and didn’t let him in,” she added.

Politakis further explained that they were pulled aside for questioning, which they assumed for last for a few minutes, but it ended up taking more than a day. During this time their luggage and phones were also taken away from them.

Meanwhile, a US embassy spokesperson said in a statement that the the US welcomes more than a million passengers arriving every day.

“The religion, faith, or spiritual beliefs of an international traveller are not determining factors about his/her admissibility into the US,” the statement read.

“Under US immigration law applicants for admission bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the United States.”

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Jul 28 2017. Filed under Latest News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.