Every day, the United States bars entry to a thousand visitors with valid entry visas, Mark Schlachter, the United States embassy spokesperson, revealed recently.
Schlachter was speaking in the wake of US immigration authorities’ refusal to allow South African academic and human rights activist Adam Habib entry into the United States recently.
Habib, an executive director at the Human Sciences Research Council and founder of the Centre for Civil Society, was part of an HSRC delegation visiting US-based institutions, including the World Bank and Columbia University.
When he arrived at New York’s John F Kennedy airport on Saturday morning he was denied entry and asked routine questions about his weight, height and employment record.
He agreed to undergo a “voluntary interview” in which he was asked whether he was a terrorist or had links with any terrorist organisation. Habib was detained by the apartheid government in 1986.
Despite denying such links he was told his visa had been revoked and was escorted back to his plane under armed guard.
Airport officials told him US assistant secretary of state for visa affairs Tony Edson had revoked his visa.
Schlachter told the Mail & Guardian that holding a valid visa does not necessarily guarantee entry into the US.
“A visa is essentially an application for entry into the US. It is the customs official who makes the final decision.”
Asked whether there was a trend of targeting visitors with Islamic or Islamic-sounding names, he said the fact that two prominent South African Muslims had been denied entry in recent weeks was coincidental. “I don’t think they’re being targeted. There’s no trend.” Each case is dealt with on merits, he said.
Fazlur Rahman Azmi, deputy emir of the Jamiat Ulema Transvaal and head professor at the Azaadville Seminary, was also denied entry to the US last week.
Habib insists there is a definite pattern of targeting foreigners with Islamic names. “I’m hearing many other cases of people turned away,” he said.