Dear Editor,
So, that’s what it is. I read a letter captioned “Passengers are very worried about their bags being tampered with, are the airlines doing enough?” (07.12.12), which referred to “your article titled “Airlines looking at extra security measures to thwart drug mules”.
Recently I might have been suspected of being a ‘drug mule’. I have just returned from a very enjoyable holiday in Hong Kong, even though I had to depend almost entirely on costly organised guided tours, as so few people speak English and it is not easy to communicate, particularly on the buses and in shops. (We also paid a one-day visit to China, where the people seemed more relaxed and ‘smiley’ than in Hong Kong).
On the return flight to London, while waiting in the airport’s lounge, a young chap in a black tunic suit approached me with a multiple page questionnaire and asked whether I would mind answering “a few questions” from the point of view of a tourist. I said I would not. The questions eventually became ‘strange’ and seemed irrelevant. For instance, did I have children, did I not find it expensive to travel to Hong Kong; did I have a mobile phone, had I used it, what numbers did I ring. (I had a mobile phone but had not used it in Hong Kong; it was for the purpose of finalising pick-up arrangements at London Heathrow). He asked whether I had used a computer, what websites had I visited; whether I had sampled “gourmet meals”; did I make many purchases. The questioning went on and on and he kept referring to how expensive a trip it was. I grew anxious, as boarding time was getting close and he was still at it. He then asked me to write my name and sign the questionnaire.
This surprised me, as, by then, I had realised that I was the only person being ‘interrogated’ and, incidentally, the only black person in sight. I refused. He accepted this. I thought nothing more of it.
When I got home and had unpacked my ‘grow-bag’ type 3-tiered lightweight zipped suitcase, I saw a neat 5″ x 2″ panel carved at the base through the fabric and peeled away with one wheel still attached, the wooden base exposed, with a hole gouged through it and into the case itself. My suitcase is now no longer serviceable. I get the impression that the (reportedly best-in-the-business) airline security staff probably felt that a lone black elderly woman was incapable of funding such a trip and was therefore engaged in, most likely, the narcotics trade. It might also have been a case of “hitting back” (by refusing to sign the questionnaire).
I have written to the airline concerned. As the holder of an EU/British passport, I have also written to the government department responsible for such matters, and have taken the damaged (lightweight) suitcase into the booking agents, for viewing. This callous, disrespectful act deserves to be brought to the attention of would-be tourists. Distance travel is now so stressful and hazardous that spending one’s hard earned cash in another man’s country is just not worth it.
Yours faithfully,
Geralda Dennison
