WASHINGTON – A high-profile Australian author and Muslim activist wasrefused entry to the United States Thursday and put on a plane home afterarriving for a speaking engagement, sparking calls for a re-think by borderofficials.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied, an advocate for youth, women and those fromculturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, said she was stopped atimmigration and ordered out of the country.
“Roughly three hours since touch down in Minneapolis, I’m on a plane back,”she tweeted.
“Well, guess that tightening of immigration laws business is working,despite my Australian passport. We’re taking off now.”
A statement by US Customs and Border Protection, cited by Australian media,said she did not have the right visa.
Abdel-Magied was due to appear in New York to discuss online hate againstMuslims and the difficulties of being a young Muslim woman in Westerncountries at a forum organised by PEN International, a freedom ofexpression organisation.
PEN America chief Suzanne Nossel said she was dismayed by the decision andunderstood it was the same type of visa used previously for similar tripswithout issue.
She said the purpose of the PEN World Voices Festival, founded after the9/11 attacks, was to sustain links between the US and the wider world.
This, she said, was being jeopardised “by efforts at visa bans andtightened immigration restrictions” which threatened “to choke off vitalchannels of dialogue that are protected under the First Amendment right toreceive and impart information through in-person cultural exchange”.
“We call on Customs and Border to admit her to the US so that she can takeher rightful place in the urgent international conversation to take placeat the festival next week.”
Adbel-Magied, 27, said authorities seized her phone and passport beforeputting her on a plane out.
“Those who say the world is borderless are those who have the right colourpassports — or birthplace,” she tweeted.
Abdel-Magied, a former Queensland state Young Australian of the Year andmechanical engineer, was born in Sudan but migrated to Australia in 1992.She moved to London last year.
She has worked as a presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporationand formerly served on the government’s Council for Australian-ArabRelations.
She sparked an outcry in Australia over an Anzac Day social media postwhich referred to current global conflicts and the plight of asylum-seekersdetained by Australia in offshore camps.
Anzac Day annually marks the ill-fated 1915 landing of the Australian andNew Zealand Army Corps in modern-day Turkey during World War I.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware she had beendenied entry.
“Like Australia, the United States administers a strict entry regime. Thedecision on who can enter the United States is a matter solely for the USgovernment,” it added. – APP /AFP