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'My father died at Lockerbie but US treated me like a terrorist'
Felix Allen28.08.09
A London man whose father died in the Lockerbie bombing told today how US border guards treated him "like a terrorist" and refused him entry when he travelled to New York to visit relatives.
Shama Martin, 21, of Clapton, a British citizen, said officials at JFK airport held him for eight hours and interrogated him about whether he had links to Libya before putting him on a flight to London.
Mr Martin has never been to the north African state blamed for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and was six months old when his father, Noel George Martin, 27, was one of its 270 victims.
He said: "They were asking if I have ever travelled to the Netherlands or Libya. They never mentioned Lockerbie but must have been thinking about it because they knew my brother's and father's name."
Officials eventually told him he was being refused entry because he had overstayed visiting his grandfather five years ago. But Mr Martin said: "I've been back three or four times since with no problem. Why ask me about Libya? My family are victims of Lockerbie, we haven't done anything wrong. I'm disgusted."
Reader views (4)
@ J Clarkson, Freiburg, Germany
"They blew up Germany in World War II"
Jesus!
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
J Clarkson - paranoia runs deep, does it? Or is it just a pathologic hatred of the USA? Either way, you really need to go and see someone about your problem mate.
- Rogan, Irving
Well if he overstayed on a previous visit they have every right to refuse entry. It's a shame our spineless government isn't as sharp and on the ball as the US immigration and custom officials.
- Dirk Diggler, Soho, London
The American's are the terrorists. They blew up Germany in World War II; they rained death on Korea and Vietnam because they were scared of communists; and they are the biggest polluters and the MAIN cause of climate change. They make war on states that have oil supplies so that they can use them. Europe should stop all trade with them until they clean their act up.
- J Clarkson, Freiburg, Germany
