When leading human rights activist Nabeel Rajab travelled to the UK in late July for a holiday with his family, he was stopped at Heathrow airport for almost five hours, photographed, questioned and fingerprinted. The Rajab family had their luggage searched and their passports confiscated; though they were allowed to continue their vacation, Rajab said his passport was only returned two weeks later. It is not clear why Rajab – who is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and secretary-general of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) – was detained at Heathrow.