This is how it feels to be racially profiled while travelling
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Version 0 of 1. In recent weeks three easyJet passengers have been removed from flights over security concerns. In the most recent case Meghary Yemane-Tesfagiorgis, who was asked to leave a plane after another passenger said she felt uncomfortable about him, claims to have been the victim of racial profiling. We asked readers whether they’d ever experienced discrimination while flying. Here, people share their stories: ‘I am humiliated at the airport every time I go home’ I live in Berlin and every time I go back home to Nottingham I get singled out at East Midlands airport – which is pretty small – often by a plainclothes policeman who takes me aside (after standard passport control) and questions me about why I’m in Nottingham and where I’m from and who I work for and what I do etc. It’s extremely humiliating because no one else gets taken aside and I’m always singled out. I have tried various different non-terroristy outfits to no avail. When I tell the border police this is my home and I’m visiting my mum they usually need a lot of convincing, and also talk to me really slowly as if I’m an idiot, though they are fully aware that I’m a British citizen. To be honest, I don’t really get it: I booked the flights a long time in advance and I do the trip regularly, I don’t understand why I have to be regularly humiliated in this way every time I go home. Belal, 27 ‘This questioning has increased in recent years’ In May last year myself and three friends took a flight from Heathrow to San Francisco. It’s worth noting at this point that the friends I travelled with are all white British (with British names) while I am not. I’m mixed race and most people can’t even tell I have North African heritage until they learn my name.We went through standard security fine, but when we reached our gate and handed over our boarding passes I was told that I had been selected for an additional search that had to be conducted before I could board the plane – my friends were allowed to continue on. I was led into a small room near the gate where I had a far more thorough search than standard security, including a pat down and every electronic item in my hand luggage being swabbed for explosives, as well as my shoes and hands.It was at this point I took a look at the clipboard the staff member had set down with the list of names of people selected for extra searches: the vast majority of them seemed to be “foreign” sounding names.This is not the only time this has happened to me. Since then, I’ve travelled to Australia. As I went through passport control all was normal, the immigration officer was very friendly and there was some pleasant small talk, but after she let me through another officer who had been standing behind her asked to see my passport and asked detailed and repetitive questions about my trip as if trying to catch me out in a lie. I had already been cleared and definitely felt that this follow-up questioning was because of my name. This sort of questioning has definitely increased in recent years - though perhaps it’s because I’ve been traveling to destinations where it’s more acceptable. Karim, 27 ‘I could only imagine what other passengers were thinking when I was taken to one side’ Flying back from Belfast to Manchester after visiting my then girlfriend in Northern Ireland – I was selected “randomly” as I left the flight for further questioning (I was the only non-white passenger). I was questioned as to why I was travelling to Northern Ireland and asked whether I was employed. I was allowed to leave with a timid apology after declaring that I was in fact the parliamentary researcher to the shadow secretary of state for business innovation and skills, and that I could call John Denham MP to confirm if they’d like. Initially I was a little embarrassed, as I was taken aside when I got off the plane while all the other passengers walked past me – so it was all in full view and, being the only ethnic minority on the flight, I could only imagine what other passengers were thinking. I’ve known a few other ethnic minority people who’ve had similar. One of my friends was profiled and she works for the Department of Education, and my other friend was stopped in New York when trying to attend New York Fashion Week with his job with Victoria Beckham. It was particularly telling when I was an adolescent because my father is quite obviously Indian, whereas my mother is of Irish/Parsi descent and therefore very fair, and there was a difference in how they were treated by security until they realised they were together. Uzair, 26 ‘They were convinced I was carrying drugs’ When I was flying to Mexico (in transit in the US), I was pulled out of the check-in queue in London Heathrow by airport staff and questioned on where I was going, what I was doing, and why I was travelling by myself. My passport was taken from me while I was questioned informally. When I was about to board the plane, I was informed that the airline “specifically requested” that I was to be searched and swabbed again. So I was searched and my bags and clothes were swabbed. When I landed in the US, I was pulled aside for some time and formally questioned on what countries I had been to in the past, what my parents did for a living, where they were born, where my grandparents were born, what my occupation was, etc. On the way back to the UK (again, in transit through the US) I was pulled aside and held for several hours, without given any reason why. The only people that were held in this room were Mexican nationals and myself. Not a single white person travelling by themselves or otherwise were held back in the several hours I was in that room. The questioning this time alluded to me carrying drugs, rather than being profiled because of my name or ethnic background. The staff put a lot of pressure on me. They treated everything I said as suspicious, and were very aggressive and controlling during the interview. When they gave me my main bag, there was a leaflet inside saying the bag had already been searched by some government agency. They still went though the bag, and found nothing, at which point their attitude completely changed. Abbas, 25 ‘I budget in extra time to go through security’ I’m mixed-race (African-British) born and raised in Britain, with a British passport and without any criminal record or anything that might legitimately flag me up for extra security concerns. But despite this, I tend to get extra pat downs every time I go through security. I’ve also been called to one side when about to board flights, and when at the check-in desks and passport desks as well. The worst case of this was flying Manchester to London and then on to New York, where I got an extra search at each security checkpoint. I was also pulled to one side each time we boarded a flight (after they’d checked my documents and seen my name), and then on arriving at New York, the passport checkpoint carted me off to sit in an extra security section along with people who regularly travel to Cuba and Colombia. After a couple of hours waiting around there, they searched my suitcase and found some sheet music (I play music as a hobby). We then had a very strange conversation where the security agent was seriously asking me if the sheet music was some form of code. They also asked me a bunch of questions about how long I planned to stay in the US, what work I do, whether I knew anyone there. It was pretty nerve-wracking, particularly as I really started to feel like they might not let me enter the country because the wait to be processed took so long. When I’m travelling with white people with Anglo-Saxon-sounding names, they never get the extra security checks but I do. I half expect it now because that’s the world we live in. I don’t think the people carrying out the checks are genuinely racist on the whole (maybe some are), but most are just following orders as best they know how. The problem is when the orders aren’t clear or the staff are under pressure to perform and do not want to miss someone they go overboard trying to do their job partly because cognitive bias and stereotypes are inherent to how we function. We’d all probably benefit from their getting training or support to overcome that. I automatically budget in extra time to go through security because I expect to get some form of extra hassle every time I fly. It’s telling that I’m pleasantly surprised on the rare occasions when I don’t get extra attention. Katie, 32 |