Tourist stripped & detained for 30 HOURS after missing little known travel rule

A TOURIST was stripped searched and detained for 30 hours after missing a little known travel rule after landing in the US.

Jack Dunn, 23, experienced the trip from hell when he landed in Honolulu, Hawaii, ready to begin a four month adventure in the Americas.

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But when he arrived he was stopped at the border, detained, strip and cavity searched, sent to prison, and then put on a plane back to Australia.

The student fell afoul of a little-known entry requirement for flying into the US.

He had applied for a visa waiver for his trip – and had been warned he had to prove his planes to exit the US when his stay there was done.

Jack however was caught out by the rule that means you have to either have a return flight home or onward travel to a country that does not border the US.

He was planning to continue his American adventure by flying down to Mexico after his stay in the US – but this meant he was in breach of the entry rule.

Jack landed at 6am on May 5 and found himself being interrogated by a US Customers officer who discovered his plans to travel to Mexico.

So he was taken into an interrogation room and left without any means to contact anyone as there was no wifi.

And he desperately attempted to book another flight out of the US after being given a phone by an airline worker, but claims border guards then took this off him.

With no means of buying a ticket or contacting home, he was taken to the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu.

He was stripped naked and subjected to a cavity search and a search of the area under his genitals.

Jack claims he was left in a cell with another prisoner who had smeared blood and poo over the walls.

And he says he was told to sleep on the concrete floor with only a paper back for a pillow.

“Once the police dropped me off, you’re in a prison, so the guards and inmates there have no idea what you’re there for, they just assume this kid has done something bad,” Dunn told The Guardian.

“They treat you like a criminal, they treat you like s**t.”

Jack had been saving for more than half a year for his dream holiday, which was due to start with a visit to the US to see the NBA playoffs, before heading down to Mexico and backpacking across South America.

But instead after 30 hours in jail he was taken back to the airport and placed on a flight back to Sydney, Australia.

Since his trip he claims he suffers panic attacks while attempting to go travelling again.

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He has urged people to be aware of the regulation and called for more visibility, with reports of numerous people also falling afoul of the little known rule.

“I don’t want anyone else going through what I went through, it’s just not right,” he said.

Visa waivers are for anyone from participating countries – including Australia and the UK – to travel in the US for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa.

And applicants must already have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) needed for travel to the US.

A US Customers spokesman said: “Under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), applicants must have a round-trip ticket that would transport the traveler out of the United States to any other foreign port or place as long as the trip does not terminate in contiguous territory or an adjacent island; except that the round-trip ticket may transport the traveler to contiguous territory or an adjacent island, if the traveler is a resident of the country of destination.

“In addition, applicants should be able to demonstrate access to sufficient funds to support themselves for the intended period of their stay and to proof [sic] sufficient ties or equities to the home country.”