Claudia de Breij has her family trip to New York last minute canceled. It fears being refused to be placed in a detention center on arrival or to be placed. “Putin province!”
Tourism to the United States is greatly declining now that President Donald Trump is causing more and more uncertainty. Due to bizarre policy at border controls, ordinary travelers also run a serious risk of arrest, writes Bnr Based on reporting in the Financial Times. Different travelers share their experiences in this.
Risk for tourists
The 25-year-old tourist Lucas Sielaff had a German passport and a valid visa exemption, but was treated as a criminal on arrival, he says. He was fascinated, taken for interrogation, interrogated for hours and held sixteen (!) Days. And so there are many stories, for example from the Canadian Jasmine Moeney.
Jasmine was also held for two weeks for no valid reason. She suspects that she has been locked up for so long because the detention centers are run commercially: the more people are stuck, the more profit to make companies like Corecivic and Geo Group, she explains in The Guardian. “They have no incentive to release people quickly.”
Criticism of Trump
There are also several messages about people who were refused at the border because of criticism of Donald Trump, and that ensures a deterrent effect at Claudia de Breij. In her columns in the Varagids, she is regularly critical of the US president and makes no sense that they, or her family, will be stopped at the airport.
Claudia received a family trip to New York for her fiftieth birthday last month, but we see on her Instagram That she finally went to London. Why? Fear of border control.
Putin province
It’s a pity, but it’s no different, says Claudia in her column. “One of the surprises I received was that for the first time with the whole family, we went to New York! With the boys who are now old enough and are looking forward to it. And we go to cool musicals, Hadestown and Hamilton and they want to come along!”
Well, the party did not take place. “Reichskanzler Trump goes fast. That nice holiday country, that wonderful America, that beacon of democracy and showbizz (two of the most important things in my life) no longer exists. I hope it will come back, but now it is a strange province of Putin.”
Unkind
The risk of an inhuman treatment at the border is simply too great, says Claudia. “People are refused at the border because they have sometimes said something unkind about Trump. A French scientist. A British band. A German tourist. “
How the border control knows that? Telephone controls. KPMG warns people that the customs officer can do your phone search And take it with you to copy. “Limit the number of electronic devices that are brought in the United States,” is their advice.
Twelve days
Claudia finds it bizarre practices. “A English girl of eighteen has been stuck in a detention center somewhere in America for 12 days now, nobody knows why. (…) “I think we shouldn’t go,” I told my wife. She had already thought. “We’ll wait a little longer.”
The changed travel advice from our government for IHBTQ+travelers to the United States was the deciding factor. “We’ll go to New York another time, right?” Ever? “My oldest son asked. (Do not be pathetic, Claudia. Don’t be pathetic. Don’t be pathetic.)”
Claudia in London: