US blocks UK Muslim family from boarding plane to Disneyland

The issue is sensitive in part because USA presidential contender Donald Trump has called for a temporary ban on Muslims visiting the US due to concerns about extremist attacks.

Stella Creasy, a member of the opposition Labour Party, says US officials gave no explanation for refusing to allow her constituents to board a flight from Gatwick Airport on December 15.

Video has emerged from the airport altercation, with father Mohammed Zahid Mahmood expressing his frustration at being barred from the US.

The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act lists more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility divided into several major categories, including health-related, prior criminal convictions, public charge, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds, the spokesman said.

Ajmal Masroor, a London-based imam and broadcaster, said he received similar treatment when trying to travel to the US for business recently.

“They think every Muslim poses a threat”, Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, one of the family members prevented from boarding the flight to the United States, told the Guardian.

“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”, she said.

The family of two adults and nine children were told by a United States official that their right to travel had been revoked as they waited in the departure lounge of Gatwick airport last Tuesday.

A spokesman for the US Customs service said: “Religion, faith, or spiritual beliefs of a traveller are not determining factors about admissibility into the US”.

“We’d planned this trip for two months – the kids were excited – and all of a sudden some person just comes and says ‘you’re not allowed to board the plane, ‘ with no explanation”.

However, an official with Customs and Border Protection rejected any suggestion that religion was a factor, and stressed there are dozens of legal reasons why someone can be prohibited from entering the U.S. Masroor attempted to board a Virgin flight to NY last week but he was taken aside and told his visa had been revoked, without explanation. They were not given a reason for the ban, according to Mahmood.

CBS News quoted a source from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as saying that the family was grounded due to one of the brothers in the group having been denied entry to Israel and links on his teenage son’s Facebook account to terrorist websites. “I don’t think so!”

CBP and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond directly when asked if it’s possible the incident could be tied to a name mix-up.

British immigration minister James Brokenshire told the BBC the matter was for US authorities to settle, though he said the British government would look into it.