Irish woman detained for 27 hours at airport

THE GOVERNMENT is investigating the circumstances surrounding the unwarranted detention of an Irish woman at Budapest airport for 27 hours last week.

Sorina Selaru, a 41-year-old mother of two, from Ballincollig, Co Cork, was kept under armed guard last Tuesday after passport control at Budapest refused to allow her board her flight to Dublin.

“All night I was kept sitting on a plastic chair. I couldn’t sleep at all. I didn’t have anything to eat or drink. They are still practicing the same abuses that the former Communist countries did for so long,” she said.

Originally from Romania, but now an Irish citizen, Mrs Selaru was kept in detention even after the intervention of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish ambassador to Hungary, Brendan McMahon.

“For 27 hours I was effectively abused by the staff at the airport who looked at me like an animal in a cage,” said Mrs Selaru, who was returning from a holiday in Romania.

“I didn’t do anything to deserve that. I’m a very good person. They were imitating animals and making faces at me to show they had the power. During all this time I was laughed at and called a prostitute and a dirty woman,” she said.

Mrs Selaru, an outreach worker in Cork with refugee group SONAS, said she was detained in a side room of the airport throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday, without any food, as Hungarian officials insisted her Irish passport was false.

Despite assurances from the Irish Government that her passport was authentic, and a visit from the Irish Ambassador, the officials continued to intimidate her.

“Even after that the psychological abuse continued. They treated me like I was a trafficker or something,” she said.

Officials persistently refused to pick up the phone to answer calls from the Department of Foreign Affairs, she said.

“I could hear the lady’s voice on the message machine trying to contact me but they wouldn’t answer the phone. They turned their badges so I couldn’t see their names.”

More than 27 hours after her ordeal began, Mrs Selaru was allowed fly home thanks to the persistence of Department of Foreign Affairs officials.

“They worked so hard for me and their response was immediate. I don’t have enough words to praise them.”

Although a department spokesman declined to discuss specifics, it is understood Hungarian authorities are claiming they thought Mrs Selaru’s passport had been interfered with.