Sudanese-Australian commentator Yassmin Abdel-Magied has been deported from the United States after it was found she did not hold the appropriate visa required for her to speak at a writers’ festival.

The 27-year-old wrote on Twitter on Thursday that she had her phone and passport taken and her visa cancelled upon arrival into the US city of Minneapolis in Minnesota, before being placed on a plane home.

Abdel-Magied, who is currently based in London, was scheduled to speak about Islam and online hatred at the Pen American World Voices Festival in New York City from April 18.

But US Customs and Border Protection said Abdel-Magied did not have the appropriate visa for entering the country on a professional basis.

https://twitter.com/yassmin_a/status/984228465540042752

Abdel-Magied was sent packing by US immigration a mere three hours after landing in Minneapolis.

“Within a few min of looking at my case the border security person – Officer Herberg looking at my case she announces: ‘We’re sending you back!’” Abdel-Magied tweeted.

“Roughly three hours since touch down in Minneapolis, I’m on a plane back. Subhanallah. Well, guess that tightening of immigration laws business is working, despite my Australian passport. We’re taking off now. What a time.

Abdel-Magied shared this selfie to her Instagram story on Thursday with the caption, ‘Just got deported’. Photo: Instagram

“Oh, and they still have my passport. Apparently I can’t be trusted with it until I’m in a foreign country because, as Officer Blees said, ‘planes get turned away back way too often and then…’.”

The engineer and author also said her phone was seized but she had taken security measures to prevent her private information from being accessed.

“Fortunately I’m a paranoid person – notifications don’t show previews of messages, and a 12 digit passcode. Always be vigilant, yo,” she tweeted.

On Twitter, Abdel-Magied received support from her followers who highlighted the irony of her removal from the US ahead of her talk which is titled, ‘No Country for Young Muslim Women’.

“Those who say the world is borderless are those who have the right colour passports – or birthplace,” Abdel-Magied tweeted.

But she was able to see the upside of the experience, tweeting: “Funniest thing is that throughout this whole ordeal all I am thinking about is what a good story this will make. We all have ways of dealing with situations.”

Australia’s Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister Alan Tudge told AAP that US visas were a decision for the American government.

“At the end of the day it is unusual for an Australian citizen to not be granted a visa to go into the United States, but I simply don’t know the details behind this particular case,” he said.

“I just don’t know the details underpinning this and whether or not it was that she had a tourist visa, that perhaps there was evidence she was planning to do other things other than being a tourist there.”

Meanwhile the CEO of Pen America, the organisation behind the event Abdel-Magied was scheduled to attend, released a statement saying she was “dismayed” at the treatment of “an invited guest”.

“We understand that Yassmin was traveling on a type of visa that she had used in the past for similar trips without issue,” CEO Suzanne Nossel said.

“We call on Customs and Border Patrol to admit her to the US so that she can take her rightful place in the urgent international conversation to take place at the Festival next week.”