A wealthy real estate developer’s plans to propose to his girlfriend during a lavish trip to the Bahamas were thwarted when immigration officials suspected she was a sex worker and kicked her out of the country.
Hal ‘Nuby’ Sears, of Miami, had planned to propose to his model girlfriend Darina Pînzaru, 25, during a nine-day voyage on a $5 million 70-foot yacht.
The romantic proposal, however, was shattered when Darina and her sister, Ina, were both denied entry into the country and returned to London.
The sisters, who are both from Moldova and have Romanian citizenship, were barred from entering the island in an act of “prejudice” after an immigration official told them, “I know why you’re here,” according to Sears of the New York Post.
“It was so horrifying what they went through. It is beyond comprehension. They were pre-judged,” he said.
The real estate developer met Darina in Romania last summer, and the sisters were supposed to join Sears and ten other guests on the luxury yacht on Valentine’s Day for an island-hopping trip through the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.
However, after arriving in Nassau from London, the sisters were delayed by a female immigration official at Lynden Pindling International Airport.
According to Sears, Ina was initially granted entry and even had her passport stamped, but Darina encountered difficulties and the pair were both questioned by officials.
“We were treated like criminals,” Darina told The Post. “They even threatened to put us in jail.”
After Darina messaged him about what was going on, Sears said he called the Four Seasons Ocean Club resort where he’d been staying, and their head of security met them at the airport.
The pair met with the head immigration officer, who Sears said was “dismissive” and told him: “‘They’re not in, they are out, I have information, they’re not coming in.”
The sisters, who deny being sex workers, claim their cellphones were confiscated and they were detained for hours while their phones, laptops, and luggage were searched and fingerprints were taken.
According to Ina, the officials initially provided “zero” explanation for why the sisters were denied entry, but they eventually spoke with the head of immigration themselves.
“While we were sitting outside, this lady, the head of the immigration came out and she said, ‘Yeah, I know your culture, I know why you’re here, we don’t want to you here, and you’ll never set foot on Bahamian land.’”
Ina said the reference to her Moldovan culture left her assuming that the officials thought they were sex workers.
“My feeling is that she thought we were from Eastern Europe and we came there as sex workers,” she said. “They said they were putting us on a flight back to London and that’s all.”
Sears stated that he filed a complaint with the Bahamas embassy in London on behalf of his girlfriend and her sister but has not received a response.
While the ordeal derailed his initial proposal plans, Sears now intends to get down on one knee and propose to Darina on another trip to Amsterdam next month.
