Father of Welsh backpacker issues visa warning after daughter’s ‘trauma’

The father of a young woman held for almost three weeks in a US detention facility has warned tourists to double-check visa rules to avoid the “trauma” his daughter faced.

Rebecca Burke, 28, a graphic artist from Monmouthshire, was detained for 19 days while on a backpacking trip around America.

She was released back to the UK on Tuesday, having been led on to the plane in chains “like Hannibal Lecter”, a serial killer from the film Silence Of The Lambs.

She returned to a crowd of friends and family at the airport.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Paul Burke, Becky’s father, has warned other travellers to double-check visa rules, saying you can do everything right and still be detained.

He described her experiences as “traumatic”.

“I think this experience will change all of us,” he said.

“I don’t think I’m going to say to anyone, ‘that’s it, she’s home, we can lock the door, and this has now gone away’.

“This will never go away, and what we want to do is to warn other young people, and anyone planning to travel to the US, to be extra careful and to check and double-check their visa requirements.”

Research

He said Becky had done a lot of research into what visa she needed and had been allowed into the US without issue on January 7.

“Even with someone so careful, she was in detention for 19 days,” he said.

“If you are going to the US for anything other than a standard holiday, I would write to the US embassy, tell them what visas you think you need and get them to write back to confirm yes or no, and then carry that letter with you.”

Mr Burke said he and his wife, Andrea, did not know for certain she was coming home until she walked through the arrivals gate at Heathrow, and only knew she had left the detention facility because another detainee called them.

“They took her from the detention centre to the airport, Becky’s told us she was in leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs.

“We just think that’s totally disgusting, what on earth did they think she was going to do?

“What risk assessment did they do to say that she needed to be treated like Hannibal Lecter?”

Emotions

Mr Burke said he and his wife did not realise how many emotions they had been holding in until they saw their daughter.

“When she came through the doors, obviously we were tearful,” he said.

“But it was a mixture of sad tears and happy tears, it was like there was a release.

“She was there, there was no more trying to get her out of that horrendous place, but we were sad at everything she had been through.”

Ms Burke had been backpacking across North America when she was detained.

She had been trying to cross into the state of Washington when she was refused entry, after trying to enter Canada.

Ms Burke was planning to stay with a host family, where she would do domestic chores in exchange for accommodation, and was told she should have applied for a working visa, instead of a tourist visa.

She had previously been staying with a host family in Portland, Oregon, under a similar arrangement, after spending some time sightseeing in New York City.

The US state department says employment is prohibited on a visitor visa, but her family say she was just helping around the house like a member of a family.

Canadian authorities told her to go back to the US and fill in new paperwork before returning to cross into Canada.

Handcuffed

However, when she tried to re-enter the US, she was handcuffed and put in a cell before being taken to Tacoma Northwest detention facility in Washington state.

Mr Burke said: “It was traumatic on a number of levels, initially she just thought, ‘oh, this is messing up my plans’, but thought it will probably all get sorted out in the next few hours.

“But then five hours later, in a holding cell at the border, she realised it wasn’t going to be quite so simple.

“It would be traumatic for anyone but Becky is a very gentle soul, so it’s probably hit her even harder.

“We won’t know how it’s affected her until we go through the next six to 12 months.

“She’s home, she’s happy to be home and now she’s enjoying things that you and I take for granted – sitting in the garden having a cup of tea.

“She does seem like our old daughter, but you can almost see that something has changed within her.”

He said Ms Burke, who is vegan, was not well fed in the detention facility, surviving mostly on rice, potatoes and beans.

She stayed on a bunkbed in a large dormitory, which Mr Burke said was never fully dark, with only one hour outside a day permitted.

To cope, Ms Burke turned to art and had the support of the other inmates who helped keep her going.

She hopes to create a graphic novel of her experiences, with about 80 pages of drawings from her time in detention.

He thanked friends and strangers for their support.

Surplus money raised by a GoFundMe appeal for any legal costs, her flight home, and expenses while in detention, will be donated to charities in Seattle in the US, to support women going through similar situations.

“It’s been a horrendous situation but it’s restored my faith in humanity – the kindness and compassion and love that’s shown from strangers as well as friends.”

In a statement to the BBC, the Northwest ICE Processing Centre said: “All aliens in violation of US immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States regardless of nationality.”

The statement said the detention “related to the violation of the terms and conditions of her admission”.