When Travel Becomes a Crime: The Unjust Consequences of Unilateral Sanctions – A Citizen's Testimony

By Maddalena Celano

Rome, July 2025

On July 16, 2025, I, an Italian citizen, was denied boarding at Toronto International Airport for a flight to Managua, Nicaragua, with the Colombian airline Avianca. The official reason? "Governmental reasons." However, further investigation and statements from airline staff revealed that the real cause of the denied boarding was the application of unilateral sanctions by the United States government against travelers who have previously visited the Republic of Cuba.

Despite my flight not transiting through U.S. territory and despite not being subject to any individual sanction, I was treated as a persona non grata simply because my passport bore Cuban entry and exit stamps. This discriminatory treatment constitutes a blatant violation of the fundamental principles of international law and international human rights law.

To further aggravate the situation, I faced the same denial of boarding a second time, on July 23, again for a flight from Toronto to Managua. On both occasions, I received no adequate explanation, no written justification, and—above all—no assistance, despite Avianca being required by international passenger rights regulations to provide support, refund, or rebooking.

A Legal and Human Rights Violation

Unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) applied extraterritorially by the United States against third-country nationals contravene not only the principles of sovereign equality and non-intervention enshrined in the UN Charter (Articles 1.2 and 2.4) but also violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly:

· Article 13(2): "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country."

· Article 14: "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution."

· Article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Moreover, the extraterritorial application of U.S. sanctions to prevent the freedom of movement of citizens of non-U.S. countries (including EU nationals) clearly violates the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other sovereign states, condemned by multiple UN General Assembly Resolutions, including Resolution A/RES/34/103 and subsequent resolutions explicitly condemning the use of unilateral sanctions.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Ms. Alena Douhan, has repeatedly expressed concern regarding the expansion of U.S. secondary sanctions, which affect innocent civilians, travelers, students, and humanitarian workers. Her report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/45/7, 2020) clearly states that such measures violate multiple international legal standards and "constitute collective punishment."

A Silent War Against Freedom of Movement

What happened to me is not an isolated case. Many citizens of EU and Latin American countries have reported similar discrimination after visiting Cuba, Iran, or Palestine. The ESTA ban, the Helms-Burton Act, and various U.S. Treasury restrictions (administered by OFAC) have become instruments of global coercion, violating not only individual freedoms but also the sovereignty of many countries.

These sanctions are not imposed by the United Nations, nor approved by any international consensus. They are the expression of the extraterritorial will of a superpower that arrogates to itself the right to judge and punish individuals beyond its own borders. In the name of what legality? Certainly not international legality.

Call to the International Community and Civil Society

I denounce the fact that, as a European citizen, I was prevented from traveling to Nicaragua from Canada due to the indirect and arbitrary application of U.S. sanctions against Cuba. This measure had devastating personal and economic consequences, worsened by the complete lack of assistance and transparency from the airline and airport authorities.

I call on:

· The European Parliament and the European Commission to take a clear stance against the extraterritoriality of U.S. laws and to defend the rights of EU citizens.

· Civil society organizations to document and denounce similar cases.

· The UN Human Rights Council to strengthen the monitoring of the negative impact of UCMs on freedom of movement and expression.

· Journalists and international observers to give voice to those who, like me, are caught in the gears of an invisible but very real war: the war against free thought, solidarity, and geopolitical plurality.

Final Reflection

Traveling to Cuba, Palestine, or Iran should not be a crime. In a global world that claims to defend freedom, it is unacceptable that the passport of a European citizen can be used as a political screening tool based on ideological prejudices. My testimony is a cry for dignity, legality, and justice.

The world must ask itself: Who really benefits from the criminalization of international travel and intercultural dialogue?