bta

[bossy]

girl friend is traveling through the uk on her way to CANADA and she was detained by british immigration police because she did nothave enought travel allowance to leave the uk. is this a scam,or does it really exist

[jno]

in general,immigration authorities want to make sure you have a return or onward ticket, or enough money to buy one, to make sure you're not going to vanish from their radar and become an illegal immigrant. But did your girlfriend not have a ticket? Did she leave the transit lounge?

[bossy]

she has a return ticket, she was not allowed to board her flight because she was not carring enought funds for this socalled BTA

[jno]

I'm baffled then; sorry I can't help.

[kira000]

I dnt know where your girlfriend is from, but there are certain places which trigger extra checks- this is as people se the "passing through" the UK excuse to gain entrance into the country then dont leave. The authorities look for "risk" triggers, country of origin, type of ticket, how much money you have etc, history of overstaying visas in other places; failing one or more of these they then tend to do a bit of a search of your paperwork and belongings to see if they can find evidence to support or disprove your claim that you are passsing through. I.e letter from someone in another coutry with the dates and details of when you are arriving will support your claim of pasing through, on the otherhand, a letter from someone in the UK, discussing plans for several months time, where you will live, someone who will give you work etc. They then use all of this to decide if they consider you a risk for illegal immigration.
They can do this, its no scam. And it sounds lke they didnt like some of the answers your GF gave or info she had on her.

[bossy]

thanks kira 000, your answer makes as much senseas what they are doing, she has a return ticket from Canada back to senegal, and she was not allowed to board her flight out, of the uk, I was told because she has a uk passport, they are afraid , with out this money she will give the u.k. a bad name if things don't work out, she has all my info, phone number and email, all they have to do is check with me as to her accomidations here