RICHMOND (NEWS1130) - A Polish couple from Kamloops is fuming after they say their nephew was not allowed to contact them after being detained at Vancouver International Airport on Sunday. Wes Abramovicz's 28-year-old nephew, Pavel Marach was scheduled to arrive from England, but after waiting for hours, Abramovicz says he and his wife were told that Marach never boarded the plane.
Abramovicz says airport and custom agents were no help, and his wife was reminded of the death of Robert Dzeikanski in 2007, who died after being tasered by RCMP atYVR three years ago. Marach had actually boarded the plane, but was detained and sent back to England because Border Services agents suspected he had come to Canada to work illegally. Don Ehrenholz with YVR says that staff did act quickly to assist Marach's family. "Within minutes of the individual inquiring at our information counter, we had four YVR staff assisting them." He adds there are more people to interview to find out if there is anything else they could have done. Ehrenholz is confident staff did their job. "Preliminary review shows that all of the processes and people that we put in place after the October 2007 incident were working properly."
In an interview with the Canadian Press, Marach says he was angry about the way he was treated, but tried to remain calm after thinking about Robert Dzeikanski.