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I was refused entry into the United Kingdom and was sent back home. It was quite possibly the worst experience of my life. Firstly, I will outline the reasons why I was refused and then explain what I went through.

I had received a letter outlining the following:

'You have asked for leave to enter the United Kingdom as a visitor for 2 months but I am not satisfied that you are genuinely seeking entry as a visitor for the limited period as stated by you. This is because you are coming to see a friend who you have never met, and only had a relationship over the Internet for the past 9 months. You stated you have taken 2 months leave off from work, but have no evidence of this, and you have limited funds to support your stay in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, your sponsor is claiming Job Seekers Allowance, and you will not be able to support you financially. Nor has she informed her father you will be staying at his house whilst he is on holiday for a couple of weeks.'

Firstly, it doesn't matter if I have never met my friend or anything, the fact is is that I have talked to her on Skype, a video conference program, and have seen her on camera and heard her voice. Why would I go half way across the world to go and meet a complete stranger? Better yet, here is the problem with meeting somebody who you're in a relationship with but have never met? If it doesn't work out then that's our problem, that shouldn't be a problem with the Immigration Control. What my friend and myself do, that's up to us at the end of the day. Whether we will like each other or not, if it'll work out or not, that is irrelevant to Immigration Control. We live in a modern world and long distance relationships work out all the time.

Next, isn't it ******* obvious that if I am taking a holiday for 6 weeks that I have ******* taken leave off work? And better yet, that is, again, irrelevant to Immigration. What has my working status have to do with Immigration? What kind of ******* ***** would not understand that? You work, you take a holiday, any intelligent person would automatically clock the fact that "oh, he must have taken leave off work". And better yet, if you still don't clock that, why the **** do I need evidence of it? That's got NOTHING to do with it.

Limited funds? I'm only there for 6 weeks and I have about 1000 Pounds and my dad was willing to put more money into my account online. The Immigration Officer didn't seem to understand that you could do that and it's either his way or no way at all. And why does it matter if my partner is on Job Seekers Allowance? What the **** does that have to do with anything at all? And about the dad situation, my friend is 24 years old, turning 25 this year. She's a ******* Adult, as I will be tomorrow. She doesn't have to tell him anything.

Now, onto what happened. Basically, I got to Border control and, at first, I was with an English guy but I forgot to write out the landing card thing, which I had to do and then I would be put with the next available person, which I did. Now, I am not racist, but the guy was Indian, so he wasn't exactly the best person to be with. This is where things started going downhill. He was quite rude to me and didn't seem to understand the situation. If it had of been anybody else, say, an English person, then I would have been able to go through. Now, he called my friend and he was rude to her. Lying to both me and her because on several occasions, both to her and myself, he said everything will be alright and in the end, look how things turned out.

I was then put into an Immigration room at about 7 am or so where I thought I would only be in there for a few minutes and it would all be sorted. Turned out I would be in there until 10 pm that night after a flight back to Australia at 9 pm was stuffed up. Instead of William they put Stephen, so I was unable to leave. I got back to the Immigration Room at about 9:30 where I stayed for another hour or so and then had to be taken, along with my luggage, in a caged van to a Detention Centre where I then stayed until 6 am. I was unable to get into a room or sleep in a bed because the staff eventually got to me at 5 am and I had to leave at 6 am. I was then taken to another immigration room where I was meant to get a flight at 12 pm which they, again, ****** up on and I had to wait until a flight which i did get on which was 9 hours later. Throughout this whole time, I was unable to use my mobile Phone because it had a camera on it and was only really able to talk to my friend on a payphone, which I did for several hours.

Throughout this time, I had tried to appeal my case but the woman that was talking to me was, like the Indian man, very rude to me and arguing with me about everything I was saying. I had wanted to see the Chief of Immigration so that my story could be heard and perhaps sense could be seen, but alas, that was not to be and I got this ******* ***** instead who basically said "Our word is law and nothing's changing, you're getting the **** back home!". Not exactly in those words but you catch the drift.

So I got on my flight, with 2 other Australians who were refused entry, escorted by guards, and then got off at Singapore where I was, again, but in an Immigration room for a small time and also escorted by guards. It's like I was a ******* criminal or something. When I got to Australia, it was all fine again.

I just wanted to write this note to let everybody know what was going on and to hear the reasons as to why I was refused entry.

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Why would I go half way across the world to go and meet a complete stranger? Better yet, here is the problem with meeting somebody who you're in a relationship with but have never met? If it doesn't work out....

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