Samsyriani
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
A bad experience at Gatwick
My name is Samuel Kuruvilla and I'm a Ph. D researcher at the school OfPolitics, HuSS. I work under Dr. Mick Dumper at the Mid East Center. I'man Indian national and my wife has just got an appointment here at the unias Secretary in Egenis. My research focusses on the Church-Politics ofJerusalem over the last twenty years. I've just been over to Jerusalem fora month and came back two days ago. What I experienced at Gatwick airportwhen I came back almost made me feel that I should never have come back tothe UK in the first place. I was standing in a line in front of passportcontrol (in the queue meant for non-EU people) when I was profiled andpicked by a group of immigration officers (I presume!) standing behind theregular passport controllers. I hate to talk from a racial point of view,its completely abhorrent to my nature, but this is the only way I can makeyou understand what I went through two days ago, on the 21st of August atGatwick Northern Terminal between 6.30-7 PM to be precise. I had just cometo the end of a very tiring day of travel from Tel Aviv after a wait ofsomething like 8 hours in Budapest on transit via Malev HungarianAirlines. I often travel via Budapest because its cheap and I like theairline very much. As I was waiting in the queue, I could see that thepeople standing behind the regular passport controllers had identified meas the only South Asian figure in a sea of black and a few white faces. Inoticed that they only had these 'lookouts' facing the queue meant fornon-EU people even though all the suspects who were arrested for plottingto blow up planes were actually British nationals. They all kept onstaring at me in turn, as though they had already decided in turn that Iwas a potential terrorist. I could see a lady gesturing to her colleaguesto keep an eye on me. You must understand that when you have an entire rowof people basically staring only at you or taking turns to do so, itcreates in you a real sense of fear and nervousness. This was coupled withthe fact that I'm a nervous person by nature. But there was to be no mercyfrom these people. As soon as the passport controller cleared me afterasking a few questions which I answered and as soon as he had scanned mypassport, the passport was taken by one of these men who then proceeded toquestion me in the rudest way you can imagine. I could just feel all theintense suspicion in his eyes as he proceeded to ask me the silliestquestions dealing with my work and purpose of travel to Israel. I wasnever so insulted in all my life by the tenor and way in which this manproceeded with his interrogation. I would not have minded if he had beenpolite. At Tel Aviv airport, I was put through the most rigorous check youcan imagine, I even had to remove my clothes but all was done in such aclinical, professional and polite manner that I did not mind in the least.I even thanked my interlocuters in Tel Aviv for doing their duty so welland being sensitive and polite to me. It was entirely the opposite atGatwick. Why can't BAA employ properly trained people who are sensitive todifferent types of peoples and cultures that pass through the airport. Iknow that this is not a question that I should be asking you but I do needto voice my grievances and I feel that as V-C, it is you who is ultimatelyresponsible for me as long as I remain a student in this uni. The man wenton to ask me again very rudely and arrogantly on whose side I was on inthe Middle East conflict.This was a question that passed all bounds ofpropriety and good behaviour. He was obviously totally untrained to dealwith the questioning of a highly skilled and educated student (I hold twoMA degrees in Politics as well as Middle Eastern Diplomacy) just comingback from his maiden Ph. D field trip to Jerusalem. I have to go back inNovember, may I be frank with You and tell you that I certainly do notlook forward to my experiences at the airport then. Any way I'm sure thatI shall not travel via Gatwick again there are too many painful memories.I've spoken to amny people about what happened and the overwhelmingconsensus among my peers is that this man would never have behaved in thesame manner had I been white European or American. How is it that thesepeople think they can behave in any manner , absolutely arrogantly topeople from a non-European culture. I think its completely disgusting theway I was treated, with no consideration been shown for what I was. I'msure I'm not the only case of Asians been treated badly at British andindeed many Western airports over the last couple of days or months, butit does not make sense when I try to reason it out. I'm neither Muslim norof Arab origin. I'm just a South Indian Orthodox Christian researching afield of study close to my identity as an Eastern Oriental Christian. Howon earth can I pose a threat to anything or anybody in this country. NoSir, I was purely profiled on the basis of how I look and treatedaccordingly. The entire body language and behaviour of this man pointedto the fact that he considered me some sort of guilty 'terror suspect'that he alone had caught red-handed. If it had not been for his insultingway of behaviour and speech, I would have been amused by the wholeincident. He finally went off with my passport leaving me standing in themiddle of nowhere, came back after 15 minutes, told me that all was OK andthat I could go and that was it. No apology for keeping me waiting, etcforget about the tone and tenor of his questions. I was so disturbed andtired that first night after this incident that I sleep walked which issome thing that I've never done in my life so you can understand how muchI had been tormented. As I said earlier I just felt I had to tell you thisas I feel you're in some way responsible for my welfare and you must knowwhat Asian, particularly innocent South Asian students of this universityare going thru on their way thru British airports now.
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