A Russian tourist wanted to go on vacation to popular Israel and even bought a tour with an excursion for 234,000 rubles, but after her arrival, the border service refused her entry, even tears and screams did not help. Lawyers for tourism businesses reported on the story in their blog.
The incident happened with a Russian woman who bought a ticket to Tel Aviv at the Sterlitamak travel agency (Republic of Bashkortostan). The cost was 234,000 rubles. After arriving at the destination from the tour operator ICS Travel Group, the Russian woman, like other tourists, was awaited by passport control. “The border service did not let her in. As it turned out, due to considerations of preventing illegal migration, she was refused entry. Tears and screams did not help – the tourist was deported back on the same day,” the publication said.
After returning to Russia, the woman turned to a travel agent who sold her a ticket. What the employee could have done was to advise writing an application to minimize the fine based on the actual expenses incurred.
The woman wrote a statement to the tour operator and, without waiting for payment from him, filed a lawsuit, including her travel agent. “In the legal statement, the tourist complained that if she had known about the possible denial of entry at passport control, she would not have entered into a tourist contract. At the same time, blaming the travel agent and the tour operator, what kind of answers are they,” the company clarified.
As a result, the Russian woman demanded to collect from the two defendants the full cost of the tour, as well as compensation for moral injury for 30,000 rubles. and a fine of 50% of the ticket amount. The court considered the case and decided to partially satisfy the traveler’s claims against the tour operator. According to the judge, the travel agent was not guilty.
Note that the non-departure insurance that she could have purchased would not have helped in this case either, since the refusal of admission issued by the border guard of another state is not an insurable event with any insurance company.
Reference: Israel has one of the strictest border controls in the world. Earlier, the Office of Population Registration and Migration published a list of reasons for the refusal of an entry permit to the Jewish state, which lists more than 20 main reasons for refusal, including unclear purpose of arrival, suspicion that the purpose of arrival is permanent residence in the country or illegal employment