Two German teenage girls, on a 5-week vacation in the Hawaii islands, have been jailed, strip searched and then deported from the USA citing strange reasons.
As reported by the NY Post, Charlotte Pohl and Maria Lepere, aged 19 and 18 respectively, had arrived in Honolulu on March 18 after their high school graduation. The teen friends had planned to spend a few weeks in Hawaii island hopping, then heading to California and Costa Rica.
However, the teenagers had not booked hotel rooms for the entire period of their planned stay in Hawaii, which customs officials found suspicious. The teens have told German media outlet Ostee Zeitung that despite having the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation, they were grilled at the Honolulu airport for several hours by the US Customs and Border Protection. They were subjected to strip searching and full body scanning, and later given green prison uniforms and placed inside a holding cell along with several other long-term detainees.
The teens were placed in the cells along with criminals accused of serious crimes and were told to avoid ‘expired prison food.’ On the next day, they were deported from the Honolulu airport.
The German consulate has involved that they were contacted by the girls and they are using their case to create awareness among German citizens that just an ESTA (Germans passport holders are allowed Visa-free entry in US), won’t be enough to guarantee a short stay in the USA and their stay will always be subject to be scrutinised by US Customs and Border Protection officials.
