AN Argentine woman who is married to a Scot has been told she will have to remain in detention at Dungavel after the Home Office branded her a flight risk.

Cyntia Lencinas and her husband Charly Garcia arrived at Glasgow Airport on Friday, intending to stay for up to a month while he handled some personal matters, before they headed off to Australia.

However, Lencinas was refused entry and immediately detained.

READ MORE: Wife passing through UK for Australia trip sent to Dungavel

In a letter to Glasgow legal firm McGlashan MacKay, a senior officer at Border Force North said he had reviewed the details and was “satisfied that the decision on a balance of probabilities to refuse entry to your client was lawful and within the realms of the UK immigration rules”.

The officer claimed that information that was emailed to him was “inconsistent” with the conversation Garcia had with Border Force officers.

“You have provided no tangible evidence to address these discrepancies and I am therefore satisfied that the decision to refuse is correct,” he said, adding Home Office records showed Lencinas had an “adverse immigration history” and had been refused entry to the UK in 2013 and 2018.

“I am therefore satisfied that the decision to refuse entry and maintain detention is appropriate and meets the requirements of UK immigration rules,” he said.

The couple’s lawyer, Usman Aslam, hit out at the decision, describing her treatment as “harrowing”.

READ MORE: The Home Office must respond to our freedom of information request

He said: “The Home Office have now responded and said they question Cyntia’s immigration history in the UK.

“According to the Home Office, she has been refused entry on two occasions prior to this one, in 2013, and 2018.

“Our clients advise that they have also been granted entry in 2013, on two occasions.

“They say they were in the UK in July 2013, decided to go to France for quick holiday, were then refused re-entry.

“However, they were then granted entry on a visitor visa one month later.

“This is rather harrowing especially when we have someone who is ready to leave the UK as soon as possible.”

Aslam added: “We have now put in an application for immigration bail, enclosing the tickets that Cyntia and her husband are ready to purchase, for travel out of the UK.

“Again, we are trying not to resort to court action which, in our view, would be a waste of court time, however we may require to if Cyntia’s detention continues.

“The actions of the Home Office are verging on oppressive and that is something that McGlashan MacKay will not stand for.”

Garcia, 44, said he and his wife had been together for seven years and got married earlier this year.

He said they had never intended to stay here after flying into Glasgow last week from Uruguay, via Brazil and New York: “I haven’t lived in the UK since 1994 – I’ve lived in Barcelona, South America and Australia – and only been back three times between 1994 and 2019.

“The idea was to come back and spend at most a month to sell some assets I’ve got here and then go to Australia.”

Stuart McDonald the SNP’s spokesperson on immigration, asylum and border control, has also become involved in the case.

In a letter to the Home Office, he queried the removal directions for Lencinas, which were set for Sao Paulo, Brazil.

He wrote: “Ms Lencinas is from Argentina. Can I have urgent clarification as to where the Home Office are seeking to remove her to, and why?”

McDonald said the couple had visas and confirmed employment in Australia, and the clear evidence was that she intended to accompany her husband there.

He said: “In the absence of any explanation, this does seem an extraordinary and utterly outrageous episode.”