Geordie Shore star Gaz Beadle has spoken out about his deportation from New Zealand.
The reality TV star was denied entry into New Zealand for The Edge's One Night Stand Party in Auckland earlier this month after touching down in Queenstown.
Beadle has now told his side of the story in a column for UK tabloid The Daily Star.
"I was due to go to New Zealand last Monday, me and Marty McKenna hit the airport, but I was told I couldn't fly because I had no visa. Once the flight had taken off, they found my visa and I was told I could fly the next day," he wrote.
"So, I get to NZ, and you guessed it, after seven hours sitting there, I'm told I'm not allowed in. To be fair, they had previously told me not to come back to New Zealand with my battered passport (which I didn't get changed), so I guess me and the team are to blame there."
Beadle says despite a legal challenge in the High Court, he was deported to Australia. Then, things took a turn for the worse.
"When I touched down in Oz, and arrived at customs, I was met with: 'Just one minute Mr Beadle, we need a quick chat with you.' That quick chat ended up with me in a deportation centre. A f***ing deportation centre. Not a jail cell, not a holding cell, a deportation centre."
Beadle described it as a "place that was on a military base", where he was "stripped of everything" and given a number. His cellmate, Mohammed, had been there for three-and-a-half years.
"I felt like I was in a real-life episode of Prison Break, I'm laughing about it now, though at the time I was thought I was going to be stuck there forever with Mohammed," says Beadle.
"While I was locked up, my team were trying every possible way to get me home. I got told I couldn't fly through NZ, Dubai, America, Abu Dhabi, or internally through Australia. F***ing amazing."
Fortunately, he was allowed to be deported through Thailand, and he was "physically taken onto the plane by immigration officials".
His passport was removed, and he was forced to sit next to an immigration official during his flight home.
Beadle says he has learnt an important lesson from his journey down under.
"Kids, when a country tells you you're not coming in with your f***ed-up passport ever again, I think you should listen to them."
And he hasn't forgotten his cellmate.
"Mohammed, thinking of you bro, a care package from my 11 Degrees clothing brand is on the way," Beadle says, magnanimously.
Newshub.
