Iceland’s Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir met with the US Ambassador in Iceland Carol van Voorst yesterday and demanded an apology from US authorities for the treatment of Icelandic citizen Erla Ósk Arnardóttir Lilliendahl.
Lilliendahl was arrested at JFK airport in New York on Sunday for an earlier visa violation. She was searched and questioned and then locked up in a prison cell where she was refused food and drink and not permitted to make phone calls. After 24 hours Lilliendahl was deported, ruv.is reports.
Gísladóttir told Morgunbladid that von Voorst had said she also considered this incident unacceptable and had contacted the authorities at JFK airport as well as the US Ministry of Homeland Security to request further information.
Last night the US Embassy in Iceland issued a statement saying Lilliendahl’s case is being investigated by US Authorities.
Lilliendahl told Morgunbladid that she is satisfied with how Gísladóttir and van Voorst have reacted to her story.
Other Icelandic citizens have contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with similar stories.
Thórdís Björnsdóttir, a young mother who arrived at JFK airport with her eight-year-old daughter last November, told Morgunbladid that after five hours of interrogation she and her daughter were taken to a small dirty room with no bed where they had to stay for 15 hours before they were deported.
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