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My friend was travelling from Dar Es Salaam to the UK and does this annually. He is African and has "An indefinite leave to remain" visa. His wife and children live in the UK.

He used Turkish Airlines and was denied boarding the Manchester plane at Ataturk Airport Istanbul when he was at the gate. The Turkish official would not listen to my friends questions. The official said the documents were not adequate and shouted "don't talk" to my friend.
After a very stressful 6 hours and a lot of distressful chatting to other officials my friend begged the police to help him. They organised a flight back to Tanzania using my friends return ticket (which should have been in Jan 2017).
He had no food or drink until he arrived back home. Tanzanian airport officials could not understand the error !

My friend borrowed money and got another flight 2 days later using Etihad Airlines avoiding Turkey, using same documents, no problem arrived in Manchester.

This is a very stressful thing to happen to anyone . How can an Official get it so wrong and cause such grief and expense ? Is there anyway to get compensation for the extra flight money used 950$ or £800 ?
American Aviation complaints dept . Said the official checked with UK on his computer and was given no evidence to help my friend . So I would like to know can they check by computer that my friend had been in Manchester 6 months prior to this visit ? So my question is ... Can an airport official use a computer to check if a traveller has entered a country in the past 2 years ? As that was the issue concerning my friends visa ?

chris knibbs
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Chris Knibbs
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    When you say Turkish official, do you mean a government official, or a representative of Turkish Airlines (being aware that this is more blurry of a line than it is for other countries' airlines)? Also, did the official give any more specific explanation than 'inadequate' - did he indicate the visa was likely to be invalid, or something was expired or too close to expiring, or something else? – Joe Aug 02 '16 at 16:47
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    Given that he has ILR (which by definition never expires) the big questions are if it is in his current passport and when did he get it. The big chart the UK sends to airlines does not have all the various historical types of ILR stickers. So your question does not have enough info to give an informed answer, close voting as 'unclear'. Please edit to provide the needed info. – Gayot Fow Aug 02 '16 at 16:59
  • Didn't know who the guy was . He said the visa was not good enough ! He wasn't helpful at all . I've had American aviation look into it , as no one else seems helpful . They said they checked , and said the airport official checked the computer and Uk were not able to help ? They should be able to – Chris Knibbs Aug 02 '16 at 16:59
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    American aviation complaints said the Turkish official checked with UK using his computer . So I need to know if they can see he entered UK 6 months prior ? – Chris Knibbs Aug 02 '16 at 17:02
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    What is "American aviation complaints" and why would they be able to provide any information regarding a UK visa decision about a passenger travelling from Tanzania via Turkey? – djr Aug 02 '16 at 19:52
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    You seem to have created a new account with a similar name; there is a way to merge them but I don't know the details. I doubt airline officials can see the UK database of entries and exits. It's probable that the official could have known that the visa had been used (wasn't there a passport stamp?) and that he would have refused boarding anyway. He may have made the decision on entirely unrelated grounds. – phoog Aug 03 '16 at 09:51

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