I was flying back from Muscat (Oman) to London (England) this week via Munich (Germany) and I had a horrible time being subjected to intimidation and threats by German police officers at Munich airport. I contacted Lufthansa Air and Munich Airport about it in the hope of finding a channel through which I could make a complaint. Thankfully, Munich Airport got back to me and provided with an email address (bpol.muc@polizei.bund.de) to which I've just addressed my complaint and described my experience, as follows:
Dear Munich Police,
I was flying from Muscat to London via Munich on Monday 16 April 2018. (Flight number LH 2482 from Munich to London Heathrow.) After going through our gate (Gate H40) and, having been checked by Lufthansa staff, my wife and I were stopped by a couple of police officers.
We can forgive that these police officers were only stopping and profiling non-white passengers. Fine. And, whilst it's distasteful, we can also understand and forgive that these male police officers wanted my wife to lift her face veil to show her face (even though she had just done so a second earlier to a Lufthansa staff member). Fine. She obliged. Not a huge deal.
However, what is unforgivable is that the one officer we were dealing with was getting in our faces, getting super aggressive and threatening to detain us. And, to top it off, he was laughing out loud about it with his colleague as my wife and I were walking away afterwards. It was a horrible experience, totally unnecessary and has left us disturbed. Is this normal behaviour to be expected when flying through Munich airport? If so, that's fine; we'll accept it and refuse to fly via this airport in future. If not, we would appreciate a response and for this officer to be brought to account.
I am sorry that we did not get the officer's name and identification number. We wanted to. But with the aggression and intimidation we were facing, we were afraid to request it. We honestly felt like we were dealing with a thug rather than a person of the law.
Regards,Adil Hussain
I searched online to see whether I was alone in my experience. Doing a quick search of "Munich airport racist police" and "Frankfurt airport racist police" turned up a number of results as follows:
- UK athlete Mo Farah being pushed and dragged by a police officer at Munich airport
- Brown person singled out for profiling
- Brown person accused of having a fake passport
- Black travellers describe their ordeals with German customs
- Indian Woman Told To Strip At Frankfurt Airport
- Lady arrested and robbed by the police at Frankfurt airport
So, in summary, it seems there's racism top to bottom in the police force at German airports and you're best avoiding Germany if you're non-white. If you really do have to travel to or via Germany, brace yourself for a run-in with "the law"!
Update (05 May 2018): After contacting Munich airport, Lufthansa Air and Munich police about my experience, the responses were as follows: Munich airport got back to me straight away and were super helpful in providing me with the Munich police contact details. Lufthansa Air got back to me around a couple of weeks after my complaint and were apologetic and said they had forwarded my complaint to the station manager at Munich Airport. Lastly, Munich police got back to me a week after I contacted them with a generic letter saying they would investigate the allegations.
Update (05 May 2018): After contacting Munich airport, Lufthansa Air and Munich police about my experience, the responses were as follows: Munich airport got back to me straight away and were super helpful in providing me with the Munich police contact details. Lufthansa Air got back to me around a couple of weeks after my complaint and were apologetic and said they had forwarded my complaint to the station manager at Munich Airport. Lastly, Munich police got back to me a week after I contacted them with a generic letter saying they would investigate the allegations.
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