As a young girl I dreamed of going to Disneyland. Like many of my friends I hoped to one day visit places I’d only seen on television shows and in films. That’s why when I heard from a family of 11 from my Walthamstow constituency whose holiday to LA had had to be abandoned, my first thought was for their kids. How long they had watched their parents save for the trip; how excited they must have felt telling their friends they would see Mickey Mouse, and how upset they must have been at Gatwick airport to watch their dad being taken aside by officials and told that their right to travel was being revoked. Instead of heading to Universal Studios for two weeks of fun, they were told to go back home and unpack.
This is more than a sad consumer affairs story about missed gate numbers or paperwork problems. The official who stopped them was from the US Department of Homeland Security – and in the ensuing furore other local residents have come forward to say that they, too, have been summarily refused entry to America.
What is the one thing these stories have in common? Religion. A growing number of UK Muslim citizens say they have been similarly treated. This raises troubling questions well beyond how to diffuse the heartache of small children unable to meet Elsa from Frozen. Indeed, if the US thinks it has good grounds for stopping people going there, we cannot be contented that the UK does not take any action to follow this up here.
The family trying to get to California were due to leave last Tuesday – that a week later they have yet to receive any details at all as to why they were prevented from travelling only adds their distress. Yet there has been no further contact from either the UK or American security services to follow up any potential threat that they are perceived to represent.
Despite making enquiries, I’ve hit a brick wall too – except to get confirmation that the £9,000 they spent on flights will not be refunded. Norwegian Air’s small print states that if you are refused entry it has no liability – and without any information from Homeland Security, the family cannot query whether this clause is invoked on fair or unfair grounds. Faced with no holiday, no explanation and no compensation, it is little wonder that festive cheer is in short supply and anger is growing.
It is not just the family themselves who are livid. The vacuum created by a refusal to provide any context for these decisions is fuelling resentment and debate. Online and offline discussions reverberate with the growing fear that UK Muslims are being “trumped” – that widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice. Faced with such claims, our concern should be to offer more than a critique of American Republican primary political positioning. Because this isn’t happening in the US. It’s happening on British soil, at our airports and involving our citizens and challenging their sense of place in our society too.
Working within all communities in Britain we must do everything possible to counter terrorism. But in doing so we should be clear about how and why prejudice has no place either. While the philosophy of Isis may seek to corrupt Islam and divide our world, our actions should actively protect its true peaceful nature, both at home and abroad. For the sake of national security and national cohesion, the government must not look the other way as our citizens increasingly fear the possibility of flying sanctions without reparation.
Just a week ago, parliamentarians were united in agreement that Trump’s views were abhorrent. Now we should do more than shrug our shoulders at secretive American security policies that leave our constituents in such limbo. If the embassy won’t answer to the family’s MP, it should answer to their prime minister and he to us about what he is doing to ensure that no British citizen is being discriminated against for their faith on our shores.
Disney may be a fantasy world, but without greater scrutiny of such policies, seeking to travel could become a nightmare for too many of our citizens and that should worry us all.