"I will never ever think of visiting England again after the treatment I got from the immigration officers at Heathrow Airport two weeks ago."

Those are the words of Nur Hashidayatti Abu Hassan, 19, from Tuaran, Sabah.

Gone is her deep admiration for the country.

"It was my mother who told us how great England was. But I think she has changed her view too after I was treated like a criminal in the hands of the British immigration authorities," said the Malaysian teenager.

Nur Hashidayatti flew to London from Kota Kinabalu via Kuala Lumpur on Feb 23. Thirteen hours later, her Malaysia Airline flight landed at Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport at 6.55am on the same day.

She had hoped to meet her sister who was studying in England. But what greeted her in Heathrow was 15 hours of interrogation and detention before being unceremoniously deported back to Kuala Lumpur.

During the harrowing ordeal, the teenager suffered from humiliation, hunger and sheer frustration.

No visa needed

According to Nur Hashidayatti, the reasons given for her deportation were that the British immigration had insufficient reliable information to grant her temporary entry and that she failed to give satisfactory or reliable answers.

The Malaysian teenager went to England to visit her elder sister who is studying at Portsmouth University and to experience her first winter. She planned to stay for two weeks while waiting for her STPM (Malaysian Certificate of Higher Education) examination result.

Prior to Nur Hashidayatti's departure, her mother ensured that she has a new passport. She also contacted the British Embassy in Kuala Lumpur several times and was told that no visa is required for Malaysians going to United Kingdom for a social visit provided it is no more than three months.

Her mother also saw to it that her daughter was well briefed before her journey. She told Nur Hashidayatti all the dos and don'ts. Her mother is after all a UK graduate with a Master degree in Education from one of the universities there in the late 1980s.

Nur Hashidayatti also had a return air ticket. For the trip, she brought along with her 475 British pounds (RM2,600) in cash, two credit cards Mastercard and Ciruscard a few Brunei dollars and Malaysian ringgit.

Upon arrival in Heathrow, Nur Hashidayatti went to the immigration counter and handed her passport and her return air ticket to the officer-in-charge.

Interrogation room

The officer did not appear too pleased even before asking questions. He asked her the purpose of her visit. Nur Hashidayatti replied that she was visiting her sister and that she would be staying for two weeks.

The officer then asked why she had only 475 pounds. Nur Hashidayatti said that she could withdraw more cash with her credit cards. Moreover, her sister could also assist her financially. And should the worst happened, she could always go home immediately.

Unsatisfied, the officer at the counter later handed her to a woman immigration officer for further questioning.

Nur Hashidayatti was then escorted to an interrogation room.

The room the size of 8 ft square was damp, cold and without any windows. It had a glass partition in the middle. During interrogation, the immigration officer would speak to her through a microphone from one side of the glass partition. She was not allowed to talk to anyone else at all times.

After every half an hour of questioning, Nur Hashidayatti was ushered to a holding pen an even smaller room of about 6 ft by 5ft. She called it room number 2.

She was warned time and again not to touch the walls of the room. She believed that they were wired with electric current. When she was held inside there, the door of the room was locked and chained.

Nur Hashidayatti broke down several times under the repeated interrogation. She begged the officer to inform her sister who was waiting for her outside.

But she was informed that her sister was not at the airport because she was sick. Nur Hashidayatti had no inkling how the immigration officer knew that her sister was sick.

Frantic with worry

Meanwhile, her elder sister, who was at the airport waiting area began to fret. She rang her mother in Sabah to check whether she had indeed the right flight number and the right airlines.

Equally worried, the mother phoned the immigration section of Heathrow Airport. She spoke to an officer who promised to check. Half an hour later, when the mother phoned again, she was told that her daughter was refused entry for security reason and to be deported back later in the evening.

Nur Hashidayatti said that the immigration officer also brought in an interpreter who claimed to be a Malaysian Indian to speak to her in Bahasa. However, she doubted the interpreter's ability to speak the language.

In one occasion she told him in Bahasa, " Boleh tuan sampaikan barang-barang makanan ini kepada kakak saya sebab saya tidak boleh jumpa. Dia menunggu diluar. "(Could you please give this food to my sister because I cannot meet her. She is waiting outside).

The man apparently could not understand her even though she repeated her request a few times. Instead, the man kept on saying " makanan, makanan ". She had no clue what he meant by that.

Nur Hashidayatti also found it shocking that even though she could speak English, the immigration officer prefer to listen to the interpreter. The officer took notes according to the responses Nur Hashidayatti made through the interpreter, which she believed was significantly different from her answers.

According to the Malaysian teenager, she was dragged back and forth between the two rooms for 15 hours and not given any food, except for one paper cup of cold water once. Indeed, her ordeal has put an end to Nur Hashidayatti's love affair with England.

Malaysian teen interrogated and detained for 15 hours in Heathrow