Indian passengers flying Air France allege racial bias

[Sourav]

Indian passengers flying Air France allege racial bias

Over 50 Indian passengers flying Air France had a "harrowing" time at Paris airport after their aircraft developed a technical problem and complained on Tuesday on reaching Mumbai that they were victims of "racial" profiling.

The passengers, who spent 28 hours in Paris, said they were confined to a lounge at the airport there from 10 pm on Sunday till 7 am the next morning and given "hardly any food and water".

The passengers, on their way to Mumbai from the US via Paris, said while the foreigners were taken to hotels shortly after their plane returned to the Paris airport due to apparent technical problem following a four-hour flight, they were taken to the lounge and given just a bottle of water and a sandwich.

Giving details of their "harrowing" time, one of the travellers, Vineeta Sengupta said, "No foreigner would have been treated like the way we were treated. People were lying down on the floor over there (at a place at the airport) where immigration takes place".

Accusing Air France of "racial" profiling, a girl passenger said that the officials there even had threatened that they would be handed over to the police if they did not stop protesting.

Sengupta said the 53 to 54 Indian passengers were later "huddled out" of the airport on a "group visa", which the authorities could have provided much earlier, and taken to a hotel.

No reason has officially been given for the delay.

Discrimination charge: travel agents write to Air France

A day after 53 Indians spent an entire night in the basement immigration hall of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has written a letter to Air France seeking an explanation from the carrier.

“I had one of my lady passengers who witnessed racial discrimination recently on a flight from New York,” said Vasuki Sundaram, secretary of TAFI’s western chapter. “It was one of those relatively empty flights and the airhostess was asking all passengers whether they would prefer to shift to seats which had more leg room.

While she asked all the ‘whites’ for their preference, she conveniently ignored this lady. Only when the lady raised a hue and cry that she had paid as much as the others for the tickets did the airhostess ask her,” added Sundaram.

“Earlier Indians used to be scared to speak out. I’ve had this experience on a flight when the airhostess was smiling at everybody but stopped smiling when she looke at me,” said Sundaram.

“Therefore when we read about yesterday’s incident, we wrote a letter to the carrier seeking an explanation. It looks like a case of racial discrimination,” she added.

However, the question that remains is are Indians still keen to travel European carriers despite the opening up of the Indian skies and the plethora of choices available to them in terms of international connectivity. “There has definitely been a shift,” saidSundaram. “Earlier the psychology of Indians was that foreign airlines provide better service but now even the Air India Mumbai-NY flight is good,” she said.

“I think it would not be very difficult to shift to other carriers as a lot of European carriers have a history of such conduct,” said Naren Kachru, an IBM engineer who is a frequent flier and was one of the passengers on the Air France flight. “In fact I had a word with our agent and asked him that our company should not give any more business to Air France,” he said. Kachru said that the next time he flies a domestic carrier will be his probable choice.

According to Sundaram, even the Gulf-based carriers which operate out of their Doha and Abu Dhabi hubs are a good option as they have upgraded considerably and even provide for a great shopping experience. She further said that Indians pay among the highest prices for air tickets across the world and therefore this sort of behaviour by an airline was uncalled for.
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