Palestinian Christian family denied entry to Argentina over claimed case of mistaken identity

A Palestinian Christian family was denied entry into Argentina and deported, despite having valid tourist visas, letters of invitation, medical insurance, hotel reservations, and return flight tickets, according to Spanish news sites Pagina 12 and Tiempo Argentina. 

The Argentinian news site Pagina 12 reported that the family arrived at the Buenas Aires Ezeiza Airport on June 16, expecting to be picked up by business partners of the father, Bassam Hanna Issa Abu Farha. However, after arriving, they were detained for over 16 hours with no explanation given. 

After waiting at the airport for several hours, the business partner contacted a lawyer, who attempted to establish contact with the family, in order to serve as a legal counsel for them. The lawyer was denied access to the family. 

After 16 hours, lawyer Uriel Biondi filed a writ of habeas corpus – a legal means of challenging the authority of a person to be detained or jailed – with the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court of Lomas de Zamora on behalf of the family, alleging violation of their constitutional rights and international human rights treaties. 

Tiempo Argentina said the habeas corpus filing stated that the family was “detained for over 16 hours without a court order, without formal or verbal notification regarding their situation, without access to their passports, which were confiscated, without contact with authorized personnel or an interpreter, in conditions that violate constitutional rights and international human rights treaties.” 

That filing was rejected. 

Eventually, the ambassador to Argentina from the Palestinian Authority was contacted, who was allowed to meet with the family. According to the family, that meeting came after the family had been detained for several hours without any explanation for their detention. It also came after an immigration officer presented a document, written in Spanish, which the officer said would allow them to access the boarding area, where the restaurants are, to eat, until a decision was made regarding their case. 

The document, in fact, was a deportation document in which those who signed agreed that they were “false tourists.” The family had requested a translator to assist them in understanding the document, but said the airport authorities refused. 

“That signature marked the beginning of a nightmare lasting over 24 hours. They confiscated our passports and denied us basic human needs: sleep, food, communication, and access to legal assistance,” said the text of a legal complaint filed by the family. 

According to Tiempo Argentino, Sandy Bassam Hanna Abu Farha, the daughter of Bassam, is a tourism operator in the Holy Land and lives in Beit Sahour, west of Bethlehem. As part of her work in the tourism sector, she met an Argentinian also working in the tourism industry, working with a company with offices in Argentina, Mexico, the United States, and Dubai. 

After several years, the young Argentinian man, who asked not to be identified “for fear of reprisals,” invited Sandy Abu Farha and her family to visit Argentina. 

“Our family operates a well-established tourism office in Palestine, specializing in religious tours to the Holy Land,” the family told Tiempo Argentina. “We also own a prominent wholesale store for religious souvenirs. The purpose of our trip to Argentina in late June 2025 was to meet with professional partners and expand cooperation with religious tourism agencies.” 

The family said that due to the then ongoing Israel-Iran war, they had already experienced difficulties leaving Bethlehem to go to Amman, Jordan, from which they flew to Argentina. 

According to the habeas corpus filed by the lawyer Uriel Biondi, one of the family members triggered a travel alert. 

“The citizen Bassam Hanna Issa Abouferha was confused with another person, a situation that was clarified,” the filing stated. According to the family, the father, Bassam, had attempted to send money to a business contact in China several years ago, and the transfer was refused due to an alert regarding someone with the same name. The family told Pagina 12 that they resolved that issue through the father’s bank, and that he has an official document clarifying the situation, with which he travels. 

Sandy Abu Fahra told Pagina 12, “They should have come to tell us what the situation was. I would have clarified it immediately.” 

The Argentinian family which invited the Abu Fahra family attributed the incident to Argentinian President Javier Milei’s support for Israel and his attempts to align Argentina with U.S. President Donald Trump. 

“This was a case of xenophobia,” the Argentinian family told Pagina 12. “And it was because they were Palestinian.” Both Argentinian news agencies echoed that language, accusing Milei of “[copying] Trump’s immigration model,” while also blaming “Milei’s alignment with the United States and Israel in the Middle East conflict.” 

The Palestinian family was reportedly deported to Istanbul, Turkey, after spending more than 24 hours in detention by immigration authorities in Argentina. The family has filed a legal complaint in Argentina over their treatment.