Sushma asks for report on alleged racial profiling of Indian at Frankfurt airport

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has asked for a report from the Indian Consulate General in Frankfurt, Germany, after an Indian woman alleged racial profiling after she was asked to strip at Frankfurt airport.

In a direction to Indian Consul General Raveesh Kumar, Sushma tweeted "Please send me a report on this", tagging a news report on the incident.

The woman, Shruthi Basappa, wrote about the incident in a Facebook post. She said she was flying from Bengaluru to Iceland along with her Icelandic husband and their four-year-old daughter earlier this week. Basappa says she was asked to strip by Frankfurt airport security officers in front of her daughter, despite clearing a body scan.

"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," Basappa wrote.

She told them that she was willing to go through a pat down search but requested they be gentle about it as she had gone through an abdominal surgery. She said she had the medical records to back her request but they refused.

Basappa refused to pull up her dress and demanded that her husband be called in. She says the behaviour of the officers changed after they saw her Icelandic husband.

"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," she wrote.

--IANS

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