The father of a British backpacker who was detained for 19 days by U.S. immigration officials at the U.S.-Canada border has slammed the "punitive treatment" his daughter endured before being deported.

Rebecca Burke, 28, from Wales, was taken from the detention facility to the airport ready for her deportation in leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs, her father, Paul Burke, told the BBC on Thursday. Watch the interview here.

"She is not Hannibal Lecter," he said of his daughter, comparing the restraint measures used on her to those used on the fictional cannibalistic serial killer played by Anthony Hopkins in "The Silence of the Lambs."

Burke also described how his daughter struggled to walk, needing support from an ICE officer as she shuffled her legs along in the chains.

Burke criticized the lack of official communication, saying he only learned of his daughter's imminent deportation through a telephone call from one of her fellow detainees.

"There's a lot of things that really we've got to try and address, I guess it can only be through political channels, to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else," he told the BBC.

Rebecca Burke had entered the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program, which, per U.S. Customs and Border Protection, does not allow compensation even if it's just room and board.

She had performed chores for a host family in exchange for accommodation, which led to her detention amid President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration. She returned home to the United Kingdom on Tuesday.