A Miami-based real estate developer said his proposal plan derailed when a bigoted immigration officer refused his girlfriend and her sister entry to the Bahamas on suspicion they were sex workers.
Hal ‘Nuby’ Sears, 64, had planned to ask his girlfriend to marry him during a nine-day trip to the Bahamas during which they planned to stay on a 70-foot yacht.
Darina Pînzaru, 25, and her sister Ina, 36, of Moldova, were refused entry out of “prejudice” and were sent back to London, Sears told the New York Post.
Sears, who met Pînzaru in Romania last summer, said officers turned her and her sister away when they arrived in the Bahamas in February, telling them, “I know why you’re here.”
“It was so awful what they went through. It’s incomprehensible. They were pre-judged,’ he told the Post.
Darina Pînzaru (pictured), 25, and her sister Ina, 36, were denied entry to the Bahamas after an immigration officer falsely accused them of being sex workers
Hal ‘Nuby’ Sears, 64, was waiting for Pînzaru and her sister at the airport when he said he was told by an officer, ‘You’re not in, you’re out’. Sears said he planned to propose to her during the trip
“The only justice we want is an apology from the Bahamian government,” Sears said. “But we’re never going to get it, so at least we want others to know they’re threatened by this kind of shameful prejudice – there’s no other way to describe it.”
The original plan called for the two Pînzarus and 10 other guests to join Sears on his $5 million Pershing 7X yacht on a voyage that would take them across the Bahamas and to Turks and Caicos.
Sears told the Post that he had been waiting for the couple to arrive, but when Ina went to get her passport stamped, Darina ran into trouble.
Ina said they were both sent to an immigration office, where they were grilled about their plans and asked if they had money and housing.
“We were treated like criminals,” Darina told the Post. “They even threatened to put us in jail.”
After she texted Sears to let him know what was going on, he called the Ocean Club resort at the Four Seasons where he was staying for help, and the hotel’s security chief arrived, according to the Post.
They both spoke to the senior immigration officer, who they say showed no sign of emotion.
“They’re not in, they’re out,” Sears recalled the officer’s words. “I have information, they can’t get in.”
The two sisters had arrived in the Bahamas to spend time on Amici, a $5 million 70-foot Pershing 7X yacht (pictured).
Darina (pictured) said that she and her sister were treated like animals and most likely convicted as Moldovans
Ina described how they took the sisters’ phones, laptops and bags and even took their fingerprints.
“Do you have the financial means to stay in the Bahamas?” Ina said she was asked. ‘I said, ‘Yes, of course we do, we have cash, cards, no problem.’
“Apparently she spoke to this lady, the head of the immigration office,” Ina told the Post. “And she came outside and gave us a look and said, ‘You’re not going in.’ That’s all.’
“Up to this point nobody has explained anything to us,” said Ina. “While we were sitting outside, this lady, the head of immigration, came out and said, ‘Yes, I know your culture, I know why you are here,'” said Ina. “We don’t want you here, and you’ll never set foot on Bahamas land.”
The two were then put on another plane and sent back to London.
Sears says he later lodged a complaint with the Bahamian Embassy in London on behalf of the two sisters, but received no response.