UAE | General
'They treated me like a criminal'
UAE student Saif Al Sha'ali, told Gulf News on Wednesday that he was treated like "a criminal" by the Los Angeles airport authorities which detained him along with his wife and their three young children for 26 hours.
- By Bassma Al Jandaly and Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporters
- Published: 00:00 August 24, 2006
- Image Credit:
- Saif (right) and his father Dr Khalifa Al Sha'ali hold Khalifa and Mohammad at a family gathering.
Dubai: UAE student Saif Al Sha'ali, told Gulf News on Wednesday that he was treated like "a criminal" by the Los Angeles airport authorities which detained him along with his wife and their three young children for 26 hours.
Al Sha'ali was returning to Los Angeles with his family from a three-month vacation in the UAE to continue his doctorate studies in information technology at Claremont Graduate University.
After completing a 28-hour journey from Dubai to Los Angeles via London, Al Sha'ali was detained by airport authorities on charges of "suspicion", with his wife and children, Khalifa, 3, Mohammad, 2, and Maitha, 18 months.
Al Sha'ali, who left Dubai on August 20, was expecting to start his sixth year in the United States, having obtained a masters degree from Georgia University in Atlanta after completing a bachelors programme at UAE University in Al Ain.
Upon being released from detention, Al Sha'ali and his family were escorted by police to an aircraft that took them back to London, and are expected to arrive back in Dubai on Saturday.
In a telephone interview from his London hotel room, Al Sha'ali told Gulf News that he has been held for four hours by the LA airport immigration authorities upon the completion of special registration procedures for males from Muslim countries.
The family's bags and belongings were then searched "bit by bit" following which Al Sha'ali was told that his name had been cleared.
"Another homeland security official then came and asked me more questions, and then took me for secondary checking for the next eight hours. I wasn't given any explanation," he said.
According to Al Sha'ali, interrogators then asked him if he had ever entered the United States under a different name, which he denied. "I have been entering and leaving the United States with the same documents for many years without any problems," he said.
"The Homeland Security chief at the airport then told me that he decided to keep me in custody for two weeks under 'deferred inspection' and asked if I wanted to leave the country," he said.
Al Sha'ali said he agreed to leave the United States "on the first flight" and that his wife was offered entry into the United States with their US-born children, who hold green cards, but refused.
Al Sha'ali and his family were then escorted by the police to a plane to London, where he discovered that his visa to the United States had been cancelled.
"They treated me like a criminal. I only had two years to complete my PhD, but I'm never going back there again," he said.
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