Teenage German tourists handcuffed and deported from Hawaii over ‘suspicious’ hotel booking

Two globetrotting German teenagers had their question plans upended erstwhile they were denied introduction to the U.S. and detained by borderline officers who called their travel “suspicious,” according to a report.

Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepère, 18, from Rostock—about 140 miles northbound of Berlin—had already visited New Zealand and Thailand arsenic portion of their around-the-world travel aft graduating from precocious school.

Upon arriving successful Honolulu connected March 18 with hopes of island-hopping Hawaii’s islands, the teens were allegedly denied introduction into the U.S. contempt holding the required Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), according to German paper Ostsee Zeitung.

Pohl and Lepère were interrogated successful Honolulu International Airport for hours and allegedly subjected to assemblage scans and portion searches before, finally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents denied them introduction to the state and said they would beryllium deported, according to the outlet.

“It was each similar a fever dream,” Lepère said. “We had already noticed a small spot of what was going connected successful the U.S. But astatine the time, we didn't deliberation it was happening to Germans. That was possibly precise naive. We felt truthful tiny and powerless.”

Officials became suspicious of imaginable amerciable enactment intentions aft learning the teens had not booked accommodation for their full five-week enactment successful Hawaii, according to Beat of Hawaii.

“They recovered it suspicious that we hadn't afloat booked our accommodations for the full 5 weeks successful Hawaii,” Pohl said. “We wanted to question spontaneously. Just similar we had done successful Thailand and New Zealand.”

Pohl and Lepère accidental they were handcuffed and fixed greenish situation uniforms.

The women said they were placed successful a holding compartment beside immoderate different detainees who were accused of superior crimes. The teens alleged they spent the nighttime connected moldy mattresses successful a freezing treble cell.

On March 19, the young travelers were allegedly taken backmost to Honolulu International Airport successful handcuffs, wherever they requested to beryllium sent to Tokyo, Japan.

Three days aft their arrest, they returned to Rostock via Tokyo, Qatar, and Frankfurt americium Main, according to Ostsee Zeitung.

The German Foreign Office told the outlet it was progressive successful Pohl and Lepere’s lawsuit and provided consular enactment pursuing their experience.

The bureau reminded travelers that ESTA support does not warrant introduction to the U.S. — a determination near to borderline officials astatine the constituent of arrival.

Germany updated its question advisory to the U.S. past month, pursuing immoderate visitors’ turbulent experiences successful the state amid Donald Trump’s borderline crackdown.

It emphasized that a visa oregon introduction waiver does not warrant introduction to the state aft respective German nationals had precocious been detained astatine the border.

In total, Western European visitors experienced a 12 percent drop-off successful March, 1 of the largest connected grounds extracurricular of the pandemic, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office, a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

There was a important diminution successful German visitors to the U.S. past month, with a alteration of much than 28 percent compared to the aforesaid play past year.

The Independent has contacted the CBP and German Foreign Office for much information.