DUBAI – A UAE based Pakistani national has been denied entry in Romania with no reason and was sent back to Dubai after two days of confinement at the airport.
Amir Bashir had applied for the tourist visa in the Romanian Embassy in the UAE in August and received it in October 2017.
When the UAE authorities announced holidays for the National Day celebrations, Bashir booked his air tickets, made the hotel reservation and took off for a ‘dream trip’. Instead, it turned out to be a nightmare, reports Gulf News on Saturday.
The 29-year-old office administrator working for a construction firm in Dubai took a flight to Bucharest on November 28 and it all seemed normal until he landed at the Bucharest International Airport in the wee hours of November 29.
According to Bashir, when he asked for the reasons for being refused entry, he was not given any answer.
“The officer was quite aggressive and would neither listen to me nor understand what I was trying to say. They could hardly communicate in English, but what bothered me was that I was being treated like a criminal. I asked them several times, but never gave me any reason for refusing entry. I was then transferred to the transit area of the airport, where I languished for two days with little food and no place to sleep,” added Bashir, who has been to Europe several times before.
“When I rescheduled my flight and informed the airport authorities, my passport and other documents were handed over to the airline staff and I was put on board like a criminal. When we landed in Dubai, the airline staff refused to hand over my documents to me and I was taken to the immigration officer at the Dubai airport. When the immigration officer saw their reason for refusal, he was shocked as their document said I had no hotel reservations, while my papers showed I had one,” said Bashir, who has now raised the issue with the Pakistani Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Bashir says he has travelled to several countries in Europe and other parts of the world without any trouble, questioning the grounds on which the Romanian officials refused him entry.
The newspaper sought a response from the Romanian Embassy and Consulate in the UAE on the matter but received no response.
The news originally appeared on Gulf News.
