For Zaid Khan, his most recent experience with the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) at Timehri 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.
On June 17, Khan, a United States (US) citizen, and his elderly parents, who are Guyanese, were going through the process at the airport before boarding their flight when Khan was asked to step into a side room after going through the scanner.
“With the door open, he brought in a chair and asked me to sit on it and remove my pants and my prosthetic leg as well. There was no way I could remove the leg unless I remove my pants,” Khan explained in an interview with Kiskadee Watch.
“I refused and he said they will have to remove me from the airport and take me off the flight. I told him this is not a standard procedure. I travelled all over the world and I’ve never been asked to do that before,” he continued.
As the officer insisted, Khan said he asked at this point to contact his lawyer and the US embassy only to be told that he had to remain in the room and could not access his phone.
“I told him he had all right to check me, but that there was a proper methodology to go about it,” he said, adding, “He left to speak to someone but someone else came back and asked me to lift up my pants, which was better than taking them off, so I complied. Once I lifted up my pants, then they did the proper procedure and released me at that time.”
Khan believes that the airport staff acted in the manner he did because of a lack of proper training and education.
Recalling the ordeal, he shared: “I was very nervous. It’s a good thing we were there hours before my flight or we would have definitely missed it. I was shaking, scared and nervous and the only protection I had was through the US embassy and without my phone and unable to call, I was very scared.”
Khan said after he made his story public on social media, he was surprised to see how many people are harassed in this manner for various reasons, such as Muslim women wearing a scarf over their head (khimar).
He is calling for airport staff to educate themselves so that they may be able to treat others with dignity.
The public relations department of the CJIA did not respond to a request from Kiskadee Watch for comment.
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