What happened to Shruthi Basappa in Frankfurt Airport?
An Indian woman, Shruthi Basappa, travelling from Bengaluru to Iceland on Wednesday was told to strip during a security check by Frankfurt airport officers, reports says. The authorities backed- out only after the 30-year-old woman’s husband came into the room after she insisted. She said that the attitude of the authorities changed soon after her husband came to the room. “Are brown people not suspicious if we have European partners or co-travelers?” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Basappa’s post on the 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’. I am an Indian passport holder, my husband is Icelandic and I have an Icelandic residence permit and we were on our way to our next transit flight to Berlin. We were travelling to Iceland from India, via Frankfurt with our 4 year old daughter when I was asked to move aside for this ‘random check’, no explanations offered. I was taken into a room, and was asked to lift my dress/ take it off so that I could be checked to make sure I wasn’t ‘carrying anything under my clothes’. This whole ordeal happened in front of my 4 year old. I was given no explanation as to why I was put through this ordeal. I specifically requested for a regular scan, using whatever equipment is in place despite the fact that I had just gone through a body scan, given that 1. It is absolutely ridiculous to be stripping in an airport no less, for no reason. 2. It is violating. My constant requests to be patted down gently because of a recent abdominal surgery (proof of which I was carrying on hand) was constantly ignored and resulted in being shouted at aggressively by the woman in charge. She then proceeded to call her supervisor who parroted the same lines about how they wanted me to take my dress off. I would really like to hear from the #FrankfurtAirport authorities if this is the norm? Why are passengers being asked to take their clothes off? I hate to play the race card here, but I was the only person pulled aside and peeking at my husband instantly changed the woman’s mind about the strip search that was now a regular pat down. I’d appreciate a response from you at the earliest.