Win for tourist ‘set up’ by ABF

A 25-YEAR-OLD man “set up” by an Australian Border Force officer at Sydney Airport has won a confidential settlement with the Federal Government over his ordeal.

The Canberra man has spoken out for the first time about how he was detained and interrogated at Sydney airport for hours by a counter-terrorism unit officer who seized his mobile phone and secretly sent texts in what was believed to be an attempt to entrap him.

Omar, whose name has been changed to protect him from further persecution, filed a District Court writ in 2017 over his treatment and has won a confidential settlement with the government for false imprisonment, deprivation of liberty, nervous shock, humiliation and embarrassment.

Omar has never had any criminal or terrorism links and was just travelling to Turkey to meet his parents for a family holiday together in Cyprus.

He said he took legal action not for the money but to stop Border Force officials from doing it again.

“They thought they could do anything they wanted,” Omar said.

“And the person who did this to me only got a slap on the wrist.”

A spokesman for ABF said the parties reached a confidential settlement agreement.

“As that agreement was confidential, no further comment can be made.”

For Omar, the nightmare of his ordeal has not left him.

“I was terrified. It was like a horrible movie. My brothers dropped me off at the airport and I just disappeared for four hours. No one knew where I was.”

Taken into a back room, he was interrogated about his life and family.

The Border Force officers took his phone and computer and demanded the access codes and then took his phone into

I WAS TERRIFIED. IT WAS LIKE A HORRIBLE MOVIE ... I JUST DISAPPEARED FOR FOUR HOURS

another room where he could not see what was happening.

“It was not just one person, it was multiple people all asking me the same questions over and over again,” Omar said.

He was also strip searched against his will and by the time he was released, had missed his flight.

Organising a second flight the next day, he was again stopped by ABF officers, but this time he called solicitor Zali Burrows and they let him leave.

It wasn’t until six months later the Integrity and Professional Standards Branch of Border Force wrote to him informing him they were investigating the “inappropriate use” of his phone by an officer.