"I was taken into a room, and was asked to lift my dress/ take it off."
An Indian-origin woman revealed how an airport allegedly asked her to strip for security checks. She later posted about the embarrassing ordeal on social media.
She revealed the incident on a Facebook status, posted on 29th March 2017.
She claims the incident happened at Frankfurt Airport, in Germany. The woman, identified as Shruthi Basappa, travelled on a flight from Bengaluru to Iceland.
During a stop off at Frankfurt, security officers approached the 30-year-old who travelled with her husband and child.
The officers took her to a room and allegedly asked her to strip for security. They had requested her to lift up or remove her clothing. However, she refused and demanded police that her husband could come into the room.
Only upon his arrival did the search turn into a pat-down.
After the incident, Shruthi Basappa took to Facebook to call out the airport, asking her to strip for security.
She said: “I was taken into a room, and was asked to lift my dress/ take it off so that I could be checked to make sure I wasn’t ‘carrying anything under my clothes’. This whole ordeal happened in front of my 4 year old.”
The 30-year-old woman also added:
“I was asked to remove the dress I was wearing. Yes. Remove my clothes. Is this the new norm? Isn’t it enough to always be the one random person picked out of line that now I need to wrap my head around the fact that I might be asked to strip?
“Do I need to wax my legs? Do I need to carefully put together a special ‘for travel lingerie’ set that has nothing to do with seducing my husband but more about hiding the outrage, anger, humiliation and disgust that is an inevitable part of travelling through airports?”
Since the ordeal, Shruthi Basappa exclusively revealed to NDTV that she filed a complaint against Frankfurt airport. However, while they have not released an official statement, they commented on her now-removed post.
They reportedly said: “I am shocked to hear that. Of course it is not the standard protocol reserved for anyone. We would appreciate your detailed feedback.”
Since filing the complaint, the Indian-origin claims she has not received a reply.
External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, has also requested a full report on the incident to understand more on what happened.
Loading ...