Sushma Swaraj seeks report after Indian woman alleges racial profiling at Frankfurt Airport
In a Facebook post, Shruthi Basappa said authorities had tried to have her strip-searched on her way to Iceland from Bengaluru.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday sought a report from the Consulate General of India in Frankfurt, Germany, after an Indian woman alleged racial profiling at Frankfurt Airport. In a Facebook post, Shruthi Basappa said she was pulled aside for a “random check” and authorities had tried to have her strip-searched on March 29 on her way to Iceland from Bengaluru, PTI reported.
“I’m always the ‘chosen one’ for random security checks – pat down, baggage check, lets take you into a room for a closer pat down, etc. Of course it is random. Of course it is not because I’m brown. But this happens every time. Every. Single. Time,” Basappa said in on Facebook.
Basappa, who lives in Iceland with her husband and four-year-old daughter, left a review on Frankfurt Airport’s Facebook page. “I would like to know if it is regular protocol to ask passengers to remove their clothing, be in their underwear as part of ‘random security checks’.”
She added that she was not offered any explanation for the “violating ordeal” that took place in front of her daughter. “I hate to play the race card here, but I was the only person pulled aside, and peeking at my [Icelandic] husband instantly changed the woman’s mind about the strip search that was now a regular pat down.”