A 30-year-old woman who is a resident of Iceland was asked to lift her dress during a security check. “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,” said Shruthi Basappa. She took it to social media to express her anguish and her disgust for the rather “unnecessary” security check.
In her post, she said, “We were traveling 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.”
She further added, “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,” She concluded.
Shruthi also called it racial profiling and said that she was always the ‘chosen one’ for random checks. “But this happens every time. Every. Single. Time. (I travel with Einar so let’s not get into the ‘it’s all in your head honey, this is for the larger safety’ talk. He has never been stopped,’ she wrote.
She told NDTV that she had already filed a formal complaint at the airport after her humiliation but hadn’t heard from them since. “I have filed a complaint with the authorities in Frankfurt Airport but I am not surprised that it has been over two days and I have no answer from them”. As details of the incident emerged today, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj sought a report from the Consulate General of India in the German city.
In February, an Indian-origin Singaporean woman said that she was “humiliated” by the German police who told her to squeeze her breast to express milk at Frankfurt airport to prove she was lactating.
Gayathri Bose, 33, who has a three-year-old child and a seven-month-old baby, told the BBC that she was exploring the possibility of taking formal legal action.
Bose said the incident, which lasted for nearly 45 minutes, was “humiliating” and “very traumatizing”. She said the police at Frankfurt Airport got suspicious because she was carrying a breast pump but traveling without her baby.
