Swansea woman quizzed under terror laws after holiday

Ann Marie Davies had been returning to Swansea after a family holiday when she was stopped

A woman returning from a family holiday in Portugal said she was detained at an airport for about four hours under counter terrorism legislation.

Ann Marie Davies, 49 from Swansea, said she was asked if she supported banned Kurdish political party, the PKK.

She has been an advocate for the rights of Kurdish people since teaching English in Turkey 30 years ago.

The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases but the Terrorism Act 2000 permitted detention.

Ms Davies said she realised there was an issue when her passport failed to swipe digitally at Bristol Airport before four people "suited and booted... took me aside" on 25 July.

She said it was a "scary" experience in which she was separated from her 14-year-old daughter and partner and questioned.

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Her DNA was taken along with copies of her fingerprints, said Ms Davies, who helped to organise a Kurdish cultural event in Cardiff in 2022.

"I'm still really unclear about the reasons why I was questioned," she told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.

Ms Davies, a mother of three, works as a clinical teaching associate, teaching medical students at the universities in Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor on engaging with patients in a personal way.

"The terrorism laws mean you aren't cautioned. I wasn't sure if it [the interview] was recorded," she said.

"The only reason I think it was a Kurdish thing was that they'd gone through my phone and there was a video of a lovely cultural evening with poetry and dancing.

"In the Kurdish community it's really important that people get together with family so it was a family event.

"My family attended. Lots of my friends came along. We had a really joyful evening. That's the video they were worried about... a dancing and poetry event."

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The PKK has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish government since 1984, calling for increased human rights and freedoms for the Kurds within the country.

Both the UK government and Turkish government consider the PKK a terrorist organisation.

Ms Davies said friends in the Kurdish community in Cardiff subsequently told her that they were stopped and questioned "routinely" when travelling overseas.

Reflecting on the incident, she added: "I still have no understanding of my rights or what happens from here, whether I can go on holiday again."

The Home Office said: "Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 enables port officers to stop, question and, when necessary, detain and search a person travelling through a UK port to determine whether they are or have been involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."