The Evening Standard reports:
An activist who campaigns against airport expansion has been barred from entering America.
John Stewart was escorted off a plane by armed guards when it landed in New York yesterday and sent back to London on the next available flight.
Mr Stewart, 62, who heads the anti-airport expansion protest group HACAN and who led the campaign against the third runway at Heathrow airport, was believed to have fallen foul of the US's strict visa entry requirements because he planned to spend a month travelling across the country campaigning.
One of his fellow HACAN activists, Monica Robb, told the Standard: "It's scandalous. I suspect it's because he's a campaigner. They are paranoid.
"I don't think he's got any criminal convictions, he is not that sort of a person. He is a very mild-mannered person, but very persistent."
Mr Stewart, who lives in Clapham, has led the campaign against the expansion of Heathrow since the Nineties. He was due to land at Heathrow today.
He flew out yesterday on a KLM flight and is thought to have attempted to enter the US via its visa waiver programme, which permits UK citizens to enter the States for up to 90 days for "business or pleasure".
0 comments:
Post a Comment