Teenage German tourists handcuffed and deported from Hawaii over 'suspicious' hotel booking [View all]

Source: The Independent

Teenage German tourists handcuffed and deported from Hawaii over ‘suspicious’ hotel booking

James Liddell
Mon, April 21, 2025 at 8:23 AM EDT 3 min read

Two globetrotting German teenagers had their travel plans upended when they were denied entry to the U.S. and detained by border officers who called their trip “suspicious,” according to a report.

Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepère, 18, from Rostock—about 140 miles north of Berlin—had already visited New Zealand and Thailand as part of their around-the-world trip after graduating from high school.

Upon arriving in Honolulu on March 18 with hopes of island-hopping Hawaii’s islands, the teens were allegedly denied entry into the U.S. despite holding the required Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), according to German newspaper Ostsee Zeitung.

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“They found it suspicious that we hadn't fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii,” Pohl said. “We wanted to travel spontaneously. Just like we had done in Thailand and New Zealand.”

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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/teenage-german-tourists-handcuffed-deported-122305110.html