Manama: Six Americans have been deported for entering Bahrain under false information, the General Directorate of Immigration has said.
"Kate Raphael Bender, Kristin Razowsky, Patricia Wieland, Michael Anthony Lopercio, Brian David Terrell and Linda Sartor arrived in Bahrain over the past week and applied for tourism visas at the airport," the authorities said. "However, once in the country, they took part in illegal demonstrations. The group was taken to Hoora Police Station for questioning and agreed to leave the country without further legal procedures."
The six Americans were reportedly in Bahrain as part of a US group "aimed at providing civilian presence to report and monitor the situation on the ground."
However, an official said that "people coming to Bahrain need to understand that giving false information and lying on immigration documents is against the law."
"They should appreciate that by lying they have to face the consequences of their acts," the official said.
On February 11, Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath, two of the group members, were also deported.
Reports said that the two arrived on February 6 and gave false information about the purpose of their visit and the names of their hotel.
"Once they were allowed in, they cancelled their hotel booking and stayed elsewhere. On February 10, they joined a protest in Sitra and on February 11, they were part of a small rally in the afternoon in Manama," Al Ayam daily reported on Monday.
Bahraini officials last week said they were looking into dropping the visa-upon-arrival facility provided for nationals from 35 countries after they noticed mounting abuses by passengers who claim they are tourists, but engage in other activities.
In an interview published on Tuesday, Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF), charged that 19 Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) based in the US have been working against Bahrain.
He said that seven Western countries had exerted pressure on Bahrain during the crisis by denying it self-defence capabilities.