An Israeli doctor and her 12-year-old daughter have been left stranded in Turkey with a bad visa. United States officials are willing to help the two only if they return to Israel, leaving five children stranded in America.
Israeli Foreign Ministry workers are on strike, and are not assisting Israelis stranded abroad.
Doctor Liat Nachshon left Israel on Wednesday along with her six children. Their destination was New York, where Dr. Nachshon’s husband, who is also a doctor, will be doing medical work for the next year.
However, during a stop in Istanbul, a Turkish airport staffer noticed that something was wrong with the U.S. visa held by Nachshon’s 12-year-old daughter. A worker at the U.S. embassy in Israel had printed the wrong date on the girl’s visa, giving her permission to stay in the U.S. until June 2013, rather than June 2014.
The two were forced to stay in the airport while Nachshon’s five other children flew without her. “I had to part from them, and it was heart-breaking, they were all crying,” she told Arutz Sheva.
She and her daughter have currently been in Istanbul for over 12 hours. U.S. officials have admitted their mistake, and say they can fix it – if the two return to Tel Aviv.
“They understand that they made a mistake, but they are demanding that I go back. If I go back, my children who flew to New York alone will be left alone on the Sabbath,” she said.
“This is a humanitarian case,” she added.
Dr. Nachshon said she would be willing to send the passport in to be fixed immediately upon arriving in the United States, but embassy workers are not giving her that option.