Japanese woman turned back at the border

What happened

Japanese nationals can visit the UK for up to six months without obtaining a visa before they travel. Immigration officials can give them permission to enter on arrival, if the officials believe the person's reasons for visiting the UK make sense under UK immigration law. Ms W and her British boyfriend, who lived in Hong Kong but was visiting England, made a quick trip to Sweden. Ms W did not realise that, having left the UK, she would have to explain again why immigration officials should allow her to enter the UK. At Stansted Airport, immigration officials refused Ms W permission to return. They sent her back to Sweden the next day. Ms W had to spend a night in an immigration detention centre and wear handcuffs when security guards took her through the public area of the airport. A week later, having travelled from Sweden to Paris, Ms W was able to return to the UK. Her friends were outraged at her treatment.

What we found

We partly upheld the complaint. The immigration officials made a mistake in the written reasons they gave to Ms W about why they had refused her entry to the UK – they quoted the wrong part of the law. The private security guards who work with immigration officials did not follow guidance about when to use handcuffs. These serious mistakes damaged Ms W's and her friends' confidence in the quality of the UK border controls. But, overall, officials had been applying UK law to Ms W in line with the standards set for decisions at the border. Even without the serious mistakes, they would have refused her entry to the UK and the security guards would have handcuffed her.

Putting it right

Border Force, which is part of the Home Office, agreed to apologise and to review officials' knowledge of the guidance on when to use handcuffs; and, as part of that, to review Border Force's ability to scrutinise the action of its suppliers.