When a friend of mine returned from a trip to the US, she told me about the bizarre conversation she had with Homeland Security when she was about to leave America.
Just as my friend and her family were moving towards the gate at the airport, they heard their names called out over the public address system.
My friend – let’s call her Rose – thought this must have been a mistake. But her dream trip to the US turned into a nightmare after a session with Homeland Security. They interrogated her, briefly took away her travel waivers (she is a British Muslim) and gruffly informed her that she was on the No-Fly List.
The No-Fly List is a problematic creation. Newborns, children and even the deceased have been reported to be on this list, which the US government claims is designed to keep America safe. No one can check if they are on the list, the only way to find out is to try and fly.
Being on the No-Fly List means you pose a threat to the American people, according to the National Counterterrorism Center’s March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance handbook, which can be found on the internet.
The handbook states that any person known or suspected of terrorism will be prevented from using a US airport. That person will also be prevented from travelling over American airspace.
I haven’t been to the US for a while and this scares me, because if it could happen to her, it could happen to me too.
At first, Rose thought this was just a glitch. Then the wheels started to turn in her head.
“How will this end?” she wondered as her mind started to imagine her and her children in matching orange prison jumpsuits or being whisked to a black-ops site, just like in the film Rendition.
And while Rose’s experience ended up being a little more anti-climactic than that, the consequences were just as devastating.
As an entire plane of passengers waited, the family were prodded about the why, how, who, what and where of their trip.
They were repeatedly asked: “Do you have $10,000?” Repeatedly they answered they did not.
Not satisfied with their answer, officials ordered them to stand up and empty their pockets. Their combined cash at that point was about $300.
Obviously these law enforcers hadn’t brushed up on their foreign accents.
If they had, they wouldn’t have insisted that this British family were Mexican.
“That’s when I lost it,” Rose told me in her Midlands accent.
It sounds like somebody neglected to crack open their sixth grade social studies book, because that would surely have told the official that women with British accents and UK passports are unlikely to be Mexican. And with that their protests began to melt away and Rose and her family were allowed to travel.
Listening to Rose’s ordeal, brought to mind Abu Dhabi born hip-hop artist Narcicyst’s video clip, for his song, P.H.A.T.W.A. where he says: “I get paranoid when I get to the airport.” Rightly so, because like my friend Rose, he regularly gets pulled aside.
For Rose it was a raw, real and sad experience, not because, they humiliated her and her family, but because, they also snatched away any chance of a return to a country she adores.
Maryam Ismail is a sociologist and teacher who divides her time between the US and the UAE
