From my past travel experiences, I observed at Paris and Franfurt airports a pose of police checking the passports of passengers leaving the aircraft.
I have not seen such a practice in other coutries like Russia, Asia (India, China, middle-east) , South America, USA, Canada ... They tend to always target always a particular group of people (Asians, like me; women with head scarfs, Africans, Latinos).
Last week at Frankfurt airport, when I landed it was raining heavily and passengers have to walk in the rain to board a bus to take them to the arrival terminal. There were a pose of police outside the aircraft landing ladder checking passports. For some unfortunate people, it meant to stop in the rain and reach out their luggage to get out their travel documents. They don't simply care. I have never seen such a rude behaviour (especially when it was raining and temperatures close to freezing point) in other countries that I mentioned from my experience.
By the way, there was passport control for everyone upon reaching the terminal.
In my eyes, this is simply a discriminatory practice.
has an interesting parallel with UK car insurance surreally enough! under EU law this week UK car insurance policies can no longer discriminate against people based on sex. It means mens car insurances will go down by up to 25% and womens up by possibly 75% for some age brackets. What the insurers were doing before is giving "special treatment" to people based on stats of who crashes the most, i.e. who costs them the most money. they cant do that now.
For passport searching outside planes it should be a similar thing. If they have their statistics that for example, green chinese people with 4 legs are more likely to be carrying invalid travel documents then they can reasonably say "well when this plane stops were going to give the green for legged people an extra search" with some docs to back it up. If however they just dont like green people and are making them wait in the cold, thats just racist (or greenist perhaps).
So I completely sympathize with the experience Ashish, but they might say "well our records show that on this flight from x to y carrying this spectrum of people we need to check the people who have z physical characteristics an extra time". Its not nice and according to EU law and british car insurance policies, its being stamped out, but I dont think you would be able to get anywhere with a complaint.
So they were looking for someone particular and probably of a certain description, hardly discrimination. Your post however is bordering on accusing the germans of being racist
Ah, the "D" word...a word that is so misused and abused.
The passport check on deplaning is a relatively frequent occurrence in many places. I am sure that the poilce guys doing the checking were not overjoyed at standing out in the rain either. Or did they look like they were having fun?
It's another of the joys of travel. Get over it and move on....
A few days ago in Neuchatel region, there was a special day/campaign here with road-side checks away from the border crossings where customs officers systematically checked every car passing by- car and personal papers, and checked the content of all vehicles. They do that a few times a year - and I imagine it must be the same for airports.
My passport was checked the same way at zurich, paris and london airports. I do not consider this racist act, its just a check and of-course they cant check each and every passenger that way.
I enjoy this special treatment and ever time the cop smiled at me
I've had passport checks immediately on leaving the plane in many countries, including India, US, Canada, UK, Hong Kong. It's just one more way to make it harder to illegally enter a country. Sure, they can't do it for every flight, but I don't have any problem with it. How it is discrimination when they check an entire plane of passengers? Time to fry the chip on the shoulder instead of wearing it...
Yep, this happens frequently. And yes, the police are usually looking for a specific individual or individuals - so they check folks who more or less fit the description.
Last trip ORD-ZRH, Chicago's finest were on hand as we boarded, checking passports and pulling a few aside for questioning. And on the other side, the Zürich Politzei were waiting for us as we deplaned.
I'm curious to know who I was traveling with that day...
My post was very specific about selective passport controls immediatelyupon leaving the aircraft. By selective I meant, only passengers of certaincategory are checked. Not all the air passengers.
Furthermore, selective passport control before boardingaircraft is done by personnel appointed by the destination country. I have not seenthis happening in India, China,US, and these are not done by the host country.
You wrote that your passport was checked immediately in India, US, Canada, UK, HongKong, etc ... My experience is different; I have been to all these placesthat you mentioned (except Hong Kong) and at several airports in thesecountries and never once I was checked by anyone immediately upon deplaning.
I have endured this almost always at the airports that Imentioned; this time I was irritated as the checks were just outside theaircraft ladder, where it was raining and temperature was close to freezingpoint. This in my person opinion is quite rude. I am not against procedures,but it should be done in a fair manner and with respect.
It never happened to any flight I have been on to have control officers checking passport when leaving the plane.
I don't know how and why this would be done as the people entering the planes have to go through a number of control already. So, it is not like someone can travel with illegal papers unless someone didn't do his job before.
I would still think that they were just looking for someone of this certain category, no? Would not be reasonable in this case to check everybody or check random people from all categories.
Well if they are looking for someone who matches a certain type it would be inefficient to check everyone (and you would have stood in the rain much longer).
As for it being rude, no it wasn't rude. Inconsiderate maybe, but not rude.
Anway, the airport police wouldn't necessarily influence where the plane was parked and I am sure that they would much have rather carried out the checks somewhere dry than in the pouring rain.
You are sounding like someone who has a chip on their shoulder and who sees discrimination every time someone looks at you sideways. You need to develop a thicker skin and focus on the good things in life rather than focusing on stuff that is in the past and you can't change.
And by the way, one of the most physical body searches that I have had has been in Frankfurt. It was brutal and I was pissed off. Had it been you no doubt you would have felt discriminated against, so what does that leave me????
I agree that if one can one should ignore profiling that usually happens at border controls. However just because you cannot change it that doesn't mean that this practice is not discriminatory.
I travel a lot and additional passport checks on deplaning seem to happen at CDG or FRA & MUC when arriving from outside the EU and US. Anyone would have been irritated if they were stopped after a long flight in the rain.
As a courtesy the officers could have instead boarded the plane and done the checks.
Airlines turn planes around as quickly as they can. They want the passengers off as soon as possible, the cleaners come one, the caterers come on. Keeping a planeload of passengers on board is not part of the plan. They police may want to check ID's but that is not the airline's business and they won't want to delay the following flight for that reason.
We all get checked sometimes when we travel. I don't particulary like the 3rd degree I get from border officials when I arrive in the US (or some of the really, really dumb questions....). Am I being discriminated against? I guess I am. But do I need to see my blood pressure rise? Is there much point getting in a snit? It's just the way travel has developped over the years. If you can't handle it, then just stay at home.
Of course profiling is discriminatory. It discriminates between those that fit a profile and those that don't. I guess if you happen to fit the profile more often than others then you are unlucky. But generally there is a reason why you fit a profile. It is the same reason why young people pay higher car insurance than older people...because they are more likely to have an accident (simplified I know, but that is the gist).
All I am saying to the OP is he is not so special. He was dealt with the same way that thousands of people are dealt with every day. He should just stop whining and move on....
They do this a lot in Canada. I go home 4 to 5 times and year and on about half of the flight they have immigration inspectors at the exit of the plane checking passports, and that is addition to the actual customs check in the terminal. I hardly call it discrimination as some of flights seem to be all swiss students or expats going home. Not too mention they pre-screen you on airplanes these days and if they want someone they grab them (have seen this on landing, once on exit and once the cops came on) straight up.
What I do find surprising is no one telling you to have the passport ready, they always announce it on my flights and most people seem to listen but there are always people who just ignore public annoucments and cause a mess for the others.
This is all news to me - I've never seen or heard of it before.
But what do they get form checking passports at the exit of the plane as opposed to inside the terminal building? Are there instances of people legging it across the tarmac and over the fence?