Ten days on, and US citizen Zaid Khan said not a single one of the Guyanese authorities he contacted about his “humiliating” experience as an amputee while passing through the scanner of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri has responded to his complaint through any official channels.
Khan, a United States (US) citizen who was travelling with his elderly Guyanese parents last June 17, had told Kiskadee Watch that his experience was nothing short of scary and humiliating, as an employee manning the scanners asked him to remove both his pants and prosthetic leg – something that Khan said he tried to explain was not part of the normal procedure.
With no response from the authorities forthcoming since the incident, Khan told this publication on Friday that he has opened cases with his local U.S. Senator and Congressman and is working closely with federal agencies in the United States to carry the matter to the highest levels of government in Washington. “The U.S. Department of State has my case on record and is tracking it,” he shared.
Khan said his objective is not about money or an apology to him, but it is now to use his case to ensure that no human-rights violation happens again at the airport. “That no disabled person, no amputee, no American citizen, no elderly traveller is ever harassed or victimized at Cheddi Jagan the way I was,” he said.
After the security officer demanded that he remove his prosthetic leg, Khan objected and was told that he would be taken off the flight. “I sat there and one question took hold of me: if this is standard; if they really do this to everyone, then how many disabled people, how many amputees, how many elderly travellers, how many fellow citizens have had their dignity and their rights violated at this airport?”
“That is the question I am now asking out loud. Because if that officer was telling the truth, this is not one man’s complaint; it is a pattern. I no longer believe this was a single bad encounter. I believe it points to a failure of training and accountability that someone may be working to keep behind a curtain,” Khan continued.
Khan has asked for the CCTV footage, the security logs, and the duty rosters from that day to be preserved “before they are overwritten, which by the airport’s own retention cycle will happen within weeks.” He said the claim made on the airport’s behalf that a passenger must “document” a prosthetic limb exists in no aviation security standard anywhere in the world. “Not ICAO. Not IATA. No lawful screening regime requires a disabled traveller to justify his own body.”
Khan said he has now formally documented this incident as a complaint, alleging civil-rights, human-rights, and disability-rights violations under Guyana’s own Constitution, which expressly forbids discrimination on the grounds of disability and protects every person from inhuman and degrading treatment; under Guyana’s Persons with Disabilities Act; and under the international human-rights conventions Guyana has signed and bound itself to.
“And let me be direct about where this is headed. If the authorities in Guyana will not answer to me, they will answer to the United States federal government, because this is no longer being handled at the local level. It is in front of my Senator, my Congressman, and the U.S. State Department.”
“So I am making a direct appeal. If you are an American citizen, an amputee, a disabled or elderly traveller, and your rights were violated at CJI airport – reach out to me. I will carry your account to Washington and to the highest levels of government alongside my own, so the people responsible can never do this to anyone again,” Khan urged, adding, “Anyone with a similar experience at the airport can reach me at, [email protected]. You can report and remain anonymous, as many Americans and Guyanese are fearful of being victimized by the government, and its members.”
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