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Locked in Basement in a Foreign Country Barbados a Paradise Lost for Itasca Couple Caught in Land of Confusion

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 November 2005, 21:00 CST

By Kat Zeman Daily Herald Staff Writer

What was to be a holiday in paradise quickly turned into a Caribbean nightmare for an Itasca couple, who spent the first day of their vacation detained in a filthy basement without food or water.

Johnathan Foley and his wife, Tara Gruber, booked a 10-day trip to Barbados this month. They said hotels.com and American Airlines both assured them they wouldn't need passports to enter the country. Apparently, no one realized Barbados changed its law last year.

When the couple arrived, they were detained at the airport, then taken to an old house and locked up overnight.

"I've never been in a situation where I was so afraid, thinking we were kidnapped or abducted," said Gruber, daughter of Itasca Mayor Gigi Gruber. "We had no idea if we were going to be killed, robbed or beaten."

The couple were told they had entered Barbados illegally. They said they repeatedly asked to contact the U.S. Embassy but were denied. After a few hours, Gruber was allowed to call her mom but had to pay for the call herself.

The couple was told they couldn't stay at the airport awaiting their flight home. Airport authorities took their identification for "safekeeping" and told them they would stay at a hotel.

They were ushered outside and placed in a white van for a 25- minute ride.

"We asked what hotel we were going to," Gruber said. "The (driver) said it was not a hotel and started laughing."

Their "hotel" appeared to be an old house. Locked in a basement with blue walls, bars on the windows and a plastic white chair, the couple awaited sunrise with no running water and nothing to eat or drink.

"I just lost it. I started crying," she said. "I demanded that we go back to the airport, that we want to talk to someone at the embassy, and they refused us."

In the morning, the couple was taken back to the airport and placed on a plane for home - the end of the "vacation" for which they'd paid $1,200.

"If it can happen to us, it can happen to anybody," she said.

The nightmare could have been avoided if the couple had checked directly with the Barbados Embassy instead of relying on information provided by their airline and travel agent.

"People need to recognize it's their responsibility to ensure they have the proper documentation to enter a foreign country," American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said.

Airlines can be fined for flying citizens to countries without proper documents. Fagan couldn't confirm a fine from this incident or that the couple's overnight "accommodations" had been arranged by the airline through a contractor in Barbados.

"My understanding is that they were detained by customs officials in Barbados. I cannot confirm any more," she said.

But officials at both the U.S. Embassy in Barbados and the Barbados Embassy in the U.S. believe the overnight stay was provided by the airline.

"It's a clear case that American Airlines have screwed up badly," said Michael King, Barbados' ambassador to the U.S. "It's the responsibility of the airlines. I cannot tell you where American Airlines sent their people."

Clyde Howard, consul general of the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, wrote in a letter to an immigration officer that American Airlines has "decided to discontinue the practice of holding such passengers in a private home; in the future, they will be housed in a hotel, with a security guard outside."

The Barbados prime minister personally called Gruber to apologize. "Yet American Airlines has yet to give us a phone call. It's unbelievable," she said, adding the airline refused to deal with her in person and only takes complaints in writing.

Howard said incidents like these are not as uncommon as one might think, occurring a few times a month.

He said the airline failed to educate employees on changes in the law, and "we've been in contact with American Airlines to express our concern."

The airline sent the young couple air fare vouchers and a small amount of cash for the inconvenience, Gruber said.

"But we're still out $600," she said. "And that doesn't include what they put us through."

Source: Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.

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