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Dream trip to U.K. becomes nightmare for Alberta woman
By MICHAEL PLATT, CALGARY SUN
Last Updated: June 9, 2010 8:59am
A few white lies and Leah Spenst would probably be sipping tea in a Kent garden today, a six-month English holiday ahead of her.
Instead, the 26-year-old from Carstairs has the nightmarish memory of a British jail and a mark in her passport, showing she was punted from the U.K.
Spenst's crime? Being forthright with officials at London's Gatwick Airport.
"I was being as honest as I could -- I believe honesty is the best policy," said Spenst.
Instead of a half-year vacation with her southern English boyfriend, Spenst's stay in England amounted to 13 hours in an airport holding cell, followed by an overnight stay in a filthy prison.
The next morning, a guard escorted Spenst onto a plane -- she was soon back in Calgary, angry and upset.
"It was humiliating, being escorted onto a plane. Everyone was staring at me."
It started June 4, when a U.K. customs officer started questioning Spenst about her vacation, for which she'd saved up $6,000 and left her job.
Spenst went with the truth, and nothing but the truth -- and that's when her holiday fell apart.
"I told them I was hoping to stay up to six months," said Spenst.
"The immigration officer looked at me and said 'We expect by now that people of your age have their lives together at home and don't go galavanting around other people's countries.'"
The problem is, Spenst had also freely confessed to quitting her job at a dental office in Canmore, while giving up her apartment. Worse yet, she admitted to a U.K. boyfriend.
In the eyes of the British Border Agency, the Canadian had no good reason to ever go home again -- thus, she was refused entry.
"The onus is on the applicant to satisfy the immigration officer of their intent to leave again," said Courtney Battistone, spokeswoman for the British High Commission.
If the decision to keep Spenst out was strict, the British border agency's alleged treatment of the Canadian seems downright harsh.
From 7 a.m. Friday until 8:30 that night, Spenst and another Canadian woman, denied entry for similar reasons, were left in a small airport room, furnished with metal chairs and a payphone.
When her cellmate asked for change to use the phone, the guard mocked her. "Didn't you bring any money from home?" he said, knowing the women had been stripped of their bags and belongings.
Spenst said she was wheezing and told the guard she may need her asthma medication -- he told her not to bother him with any medical complaints, as it would require more paperwork.
If the 13-hour airport holding room was tedious and unfriendly, what came next was a nightmare.
Frisked for a second time, the two Canadians were bundled into a caged van and shipped off to Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, a prison for undesirables.
Officially, it's a near-hotel for detainees, with religious facilities, gyms and a cinema.
But that's the long-term facility -- the short-term prison, where Spenst was jailed, was slammed in a recent government report.
Condemned as poorly run and shoddy, the report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons also says women are housed alongside dangerous male prisoners.
"(It holds) women in wholly inappropriate conditions which could not guarantee them adequate and appropriate treatment," the report reads.
Spenst and her cellmate were locked in a dirty cell.
"There were urine stains and pubic hairs everywhere -- when we asked for rags and brooms to clean up, they laughed at us," said Spenst.
One sleepless night later, the women asked for towels to use the shower in their room.
"They told us to just use our bedsheets," she said.
Spenst is now consulting with a lawyer and she plans to offically complain about her treatment in the U.K.
An official with the British Home Office in London said all complaints about the border agency are investigated.
Meanwhile, Spenst says she wants her name cleared, along with her passport.
"I hadn't done anything wrong and now I've got this stamp on my passport, showing I wasn't allowed in," said Spenst.
"I was just being honest."
http://www.calgarysun.com/news/columnists/michael_platt/2010/06/09/14319826.html