Around 3 years ago I applied for a temporary working visa for the UK, but it got rejected because I lied to the police once and had some old DUI charges. So I never went to the UK.
I recently arrived in Gatwick on a flight from Amsterdam while on my journey backpacking around Europe. I though surely for those offences a tourist visa would be OK, but no. After keeping me all night, they decided to send me back to Amsterdam. They told me the main reason was that I didn't have any documents with me concerning my transit out of the UK (all of it is on the internet).
When in Amsterdam I collected the massive pile of flight information which I had already booked weeks earlier – my flight home to Australia is from London.
Then I tried to catch the Eurostar from Belgium with the documents they'd asked for. The way I was treated was so disgusting that I still can't believe it. I was asked if I was a "Shanty" (whatever that is). When I told an officer that I'd planned to stay in Brixton to see my friend, he asked me, "Is he black?" When I said, "No – she's not," he said, "There's a lot of black people there." This may give you an idea into the kind of "people" I was dealing with.
After hours of intense questioning where he'd try to catch me out on any tiny little thing I said, and actively try to trick me, and say, "This stamp was wrong," or, "That stamp doesn't exist" and me having to grab the passport and show it to him, they said no, because now they thought I'd work illegally. They knew I wasn't going to, and they knew I knew. It was just about them winning and me doing as I was told. Even if they were wrong.
He told me there was nothing stopping me going to Dublin. So, with only a few days left on my Schengen visa, I did. And they, like every other country I've been to in my 4 years of backpacking, let me in. And today I flew to Glasgow, and soon I will take the train to London.
My problem is, I have a flight booked from London to Iceland, then a return flight to London, where I have 5 days before my flight back to Aus., and they will again probably stop me. My question is this: if I enter the UK from the EU and am rejected again, what will they do with me if my visa is not valid anymore for the country I arrived from? If they'll send me home, that's fine, and to be honest, I'd love to see the UK pay for that after all the money and stress they've caused me. My other question is – if I book a connecting flight to Dublin – will I still have to pass immigration? Or can I stay in the security area?