Q COSTA RICA – Hamaseh Tayari, on vacation in Costa Rica for the last week, is on an extended stay, stranded in the country, not being able to return to the UK due to Donald Trump’s so-called
Muslim ban.
Tayari holds an Iranian passport, was due to fly back to Glasgow via New York on Saturday following a holiday with her boyfriend.
The executive order passed by U.S. President Donald Trump which imposed a 90-day ban on entry to the United States for nationals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, prevented Tayari from leaving Costa Rica, whose alternative is purchase a ticket back home.
Her options include a direct flight on British Airways, or indirect to Europe on Iberia via Madrid and Air France via Paris. Tayari could also fly Avianca with connections to Europe via El Salvador and Colombia or Copa via Panama.
In all cases, it means a layout of US$1,605 dollars, the lowest fare on a one-way flight from the San Jose airport (SJO) to LGW on Tuesday (January 31).
Tayari, who grew up in Italy, has never experienced anything like this. She told he Guardian: ‘This has really shocked me. We just discovered (what Trump did) at the airport when we went to check in. I want people to know that this is not just happening to refugees. I am a graduate and I have a PhD. It has happened to a person who is working and who pays tax.
‘We had been saving for months for this holiday and it will cost me a month’s salary just to get home.
‘I am destroyed. I did not know that I could cry for so long. It feels like the beginning of the end. How this is possible? I am really afraid about what is going on.’
But that thanks to a crowdfunding appeal launched by Women for Independence, an incredible £6.175 of the £2,600 goal was raised in one day.
President Trump’s order has barred all refugees from entering the US for four months, and indefinitely halted any from Syria. He said the ban was needed to keep out ‘radical Islamic terrorists’.
The Q has tried to confirm Tayari’s situation, learning this morning that she was able to find an alternative flight, though we are not sure if she on her way home or not yet.
