NEWS COURTESY: "BANGALORE MIRROR"
Immigration officials stop a young woman from Chhattisgarh from flying to Helsinki because they couldn’t understand her language!
BY: M K Ashoka
BY: M K Ashoka
On Tuesday, immigration authorities at Bangalore airport prevented a young woman from flying to Helsinki for a conference because she had a Chhatisgarhi accent!
It’s a variant of the obnoxious racial profiling that the US immigration authorities practice: The way SRK and numerous other Indians have been harassed at US airports because they carry a problematic surname or simply come from a troubled region.
A similar paranoia, spawned obviously by ‘national security’ concerns, surfaced in Bangalore International Airport (BIA).
Suman Koretti was supposed to fly to Helsinki via Dubai and Frankfurt at 4.15 am on Tuesday. All her papers — passport, visa, the conference invitation etc — were in perfect order and she had already got the boarding pass when immigration authorities stopped her.
Suman, a tribal girl from Astara in Chhatisgarh, was to attend an international conference on displacement in Finland and, since she doesn’t speak English, was accompanied by a Bangalore-based translator V S Roy David.
Suman speaks Hindi mixed with a tribal dialect and immigration authorities wouldn’t let her go on the pretext that they couldn’t understand her. This despite the presence of V S Roy David, director of Coorg Organisation for Rural Development and and convenor of National Adivasi Alliance, who was able to answer all official questions on her behalf.
“Suman showed them the seminar invitation from Helsinki. They didn’t have any problems with her passport, visa etc. Just the fact that she spoke broken Hindi,” V S Roy David said.
On their part, immigration officials told Bangalore Mirror that Suman came to the immigration counter just 19 minutes before take-off, whereas the norm is at least 30 minutes. They added that she couldn’t answer them convincingly when a global verification procedure alerted them to certain discrepancies on her passport status.
When V S Roy David tried to translate her Hindi to the immigration officials they made snide remarks, asking him whether he was having an affair with her. “They asked me all kinds of questions. It was disgusting,” said V S Roy David.
The BIA immigration officials told Suman to fly to Helsinki from Delhi. Which they eventually did. The Indira ಗಾಂಧಿ International Airport authorities at Delhi, interestingly, let Suman fly to Finland without any hitch.
‘She didn’t give convincing answers’
This is what the spokesperson of the immigration department said: “Suman Koratti checked-in with Emirates Airlines at 3.13 am at BIA for the flight scheduled to take-off at 4.15 am. She came to immigration counter located on the first floor of BIA at 3.56 am, 43 minutes after the check-in with airline counter. Only 19 minutes were left for departure. As per established norms, she should have come to the immigration counter at least half an hour before departure.
“When we checked Passport Information Service on Net (PISON), there was a Lost/Damage/Impound/Revoke mention against her passport number. We questioned her on this, but she failed to give a convincing reply. She spoke Hindi with a peculiar accent. She could not explain why she was going to Finland. Our officer did not have enough time to profile her as she came late. At this juncture, we suggested that she take another flight to the same destination at 9.30 pm the same day. On her refusal, we had to offload her.”
Meanwhile, Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), Soumendu Mukharjee explained that he had not come across any incident of discrimination based on caste, creed and identity so far in the immigration department. “We have to verify this. It is not fair on my part to comment on this issue. I will look into it and take immediate action,” he said.
It’s a variant of the obnoxious racial profiling that the US immigration authorities practice: The way SRK and numerous other Indians have been harassed at US airports because they carry a problematic surname or simply come from a troubled region.
A similar paranoia, spawned obviously by ‘national security’ concerns, surfaced in Bangalore International Airport (BIA).
Suman Koretti was supposed to fly to Helsinki via Dubai and Frankfurt at 4.15 am on Tuesday. All her papers — passport, visa, the conference invitation etc — were in perfect order and she had already got the boarding pass when immigration authorities stopped her.
Suman, a tribal girl from Astara in Chhatisgarh, was to attend an international conference on displacement in Finland and, since she doesn’t speak English, was accompanied by a Bangalore-based translator V S Roy David.
Suman speaks Hindi mixed with a tribal dialect and immigration authorities wouldn’t let her go on the pretext that they couldn’t understand her. This despite the presence of V S Roy David, director of Coorg Organisation for Rural Development and and convenor of National Adivasi Alliance, who was able to answer all official questions on her behalf.
“Suman showed them the seminar invitation from Helsinki. They didn’t have any problems with her passport, visa etc. Just the fact that she spoke broken Hindi,” V S Roy David said.
On their part, immigration officials told Bangalore Mirror that Suman came to the immigration counter just 19 minutes before take-off, whereas the norm is at least 30 minutes. They added that she couldn’t answer them convincingly when a global verification procedure alerted them to certain discrepancies on her passport status.
When V S Roy David tried to translate her Hindi to the immigration officials they made snide remarks, asking him whether he was having an affair with her. “They asked me all kinds of questions. It was disgusting,” said V S Roy David.
The BIA immigration officials told Suman to fly to Helsinki from Delhi. Which they eventually did. The Indira ಗಾಂಧಿ International Airport authorities at Delhi, interestingly, let Suman fly to Finland without any hitch.
‘She didn’t give convincing answers’
This is what the spokesperson of the immigration department said: “Suman Koratti checked-in with Emirates Airlines at 3.13 am at BIA for the flight scheduled to take-off at 4.15 am. She came to immigration counter located on the first floor of BIA at 3.56 am, 43 minutes after the check-in with airline counter. Only 19 minutes were left for departure. As per established norms, she should have come to the immigration counter at least half an hour before departure.
“When we checked Passport Information Service on Net (PISON), there was a Lost/Damage/Impound/Revoke mention against her passport number. We questioned her on this, but she failed to give a convincing reply. She spoke Hindi with a peculiar accent. She could not explain why she was going to Finland. Our officer did not have enough time to profile her as she came late. At this juncture, we suggested that she take another flight to the same destination at 9.30 pm the same day. On her refusal, we had to offload her.”
Meanwhile, Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), Soumendu Mukharjee explained that he had not come across any incident of discrimination based on caste, creed and identity so far in the immigration department. “We have to verify this. It is not fair on my part to comment on this issue. I will look into it and take immediate action,” he said.
THANKS TO "BANGALORE MIRROR"