<div style="float: left;">
		<img align="" alt="" class="imgCont" height="464" src="http://bsmedia.business-standard.com/_media/bs/img/article/2015-08/01/full/1438429545-7333.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-right: 10px; padding: 1px; float: left; z-index: 0;" title="" width="620" />
		<div>
			&ldquo;We were detained at the airport as always. For one-and-a-half hours. It was nice. It always happens when I come to America. Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself I take a trip to America,&rdquo; this is what Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan said at the Yale University, speaking to students, in April 2012.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			The actor was detained by US authorities for 90 minutes at White Plains airport near New York when he arrived on a private plane and was on the way to Yale University for a function.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			India&rsquo;s then foreign minister S M Krishna had said that the &ldquo;policy of detention and apology by the US cannot continue&quot;. The US customs and border protection authorities later expressed &quot;profound&quot; apologies for the incident.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			There have been several incidents in the past of prominent Indian officials being stopped or frisked at US airports. From Meera Shankar (In December 2010, India&#39;s then-ambassador) to late APJ Abdul Kalam (in 2009 America&#39;s Continental Airlines frisked and made him remove his shoes at Delhi airport in April before he boarded a flight to the US), they all have gone through the paranoid american experience.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			But these were well known personalities whom we know and for whom the system reacts and stands up if anything bad happens to them, but think about thousands of common travellers who face such humiliating incidents on foreign soil without an idea of what&rsquo;s going wrong with them.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			One such story is of a young energetic Indian who had no idea of what was awaiting her at the Chicago airport when she left India on the 10th of July this year &ndash; to visit her sister living in the US. She did want to be named.&nbsp;</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			Sh ewrote her entire experience on her <a href="https://musingsbythewindow.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/detained-by-chance-unbroken-by-choice/" target="_blank"><strong>blog</strong></a> on wordpress.com. Here is the gist of the piece that throws up some serious questions.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			After 21 hours of journey when she reached Chicago&rsquo;s O&rsquo;Hare airport via Doha at 2pm, little did she know that her holiday dreams to truly reinvent herself during her stay at her sister&rsquo;s house would be shattered by American immigration officials within hours.&nbsp;</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			After the landing she was waiting for her turn to clear the immigration formalities when she was told to wait for her turn. And, at 4 pm, her fingerprints and photo were taken, and normal set of questions were asked. But to her surprise she was taken to a waiting room, filled with all kinds of travellers who were getting intimidated by the American officers. At 8 pm in the evening, another interrogation took place in a private interview room. They checked everything that she had with her including her text messages, WhatsApp, Gmail and Facebook accounts. The officer extracted some sentences from the private conversations that she had with her friends: &ldquo;It seems that you&rsquo;re all set to move here.&quot; A friend of yours has written &ldquo;Have a great new beginning&hellip;&rdquo;, &ldquo;All your friends are wishing you a Goodbye as though you&rsquo;re moving here for good?&rdquo; Eventually, the questions started veering towards her family, her parents&rsquo; interest in settling down in the USA, her ability to pick up a job in the next six months on an invalid visa (She had a regular tourist visa), etc. The officer claimed that she had an intention of transiting to a student or work visa, from her current tourist visa.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			Then came a formal statement where she was asked the above questions again, but this time &ldquo;under oath&rdquo;. Her responses were entered into a computer by the officer, and she was given the verdict: She had two choices. Voluntary Removal or Deportation. Voluntary removal meant that she would be sent back to India, and her US tourist visa would remain cancelled. She could however re-apply for a visa later. Deportation meant that she would be sent back as a &ldquo;deportee&rdquo;, which gets stamped on her passport, which then follows her around the globe whenever she wants to travel anywhere. She writes, she had no means of checking the legal status, whether her information was true and complete, whether she had any other options considering the situation she was in, or whether she could question anyone. The officer recommended to take voluntary removal. And, after she signed the statement by check marking the box, and finished the paperwork it seemed the Americans would find her a return flight that night. But, the officer said, &ldquo;All international flights leave Chicago during the second half of the day. So as of now, we don&rsquo;t have anything flying out to India. The next flight&rsquo;s tomorrow evening, provided we get you a seat on it.&rdquo; And, &ldquo;Until we put you on that plane, we will need to detain you here, at the airport.&rdquo; &ldquo;Do you have any questions?&rdquo; the officer asked her.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			Finally she was put inside a small room with another girl where she spent the entire night without knowing what really happened that led her to experience such a situation. She writes that each time she felt low, the girl next to her cheered her up and they decided to not let the Americans break them. The girl was acting as a ray of light in the darkness for her.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			After 22 hours she was locked in, she was told that it was the Qatar return flight to India, the same plane that flew her to the US. The departure was at 8:50 pm. The previous night, before they&rsquo;d detained her, she had asked the interrogating officer about the details of her flight out of the USA. She claims she was asssured that the airline that had brought her in had to fly her out as well. But as she had booked her return ticket on Etihad Airways, the office informed her that she may have to pay a small difference in fare, if any.&nbsp;</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			But, later she found that they did not book her on an Etihad flight but had booked her on a Qatar airways flight. She had a $700 non-refundable ticket to India, in January. And, the officer had also assured that Qatar could not charge her for the return trip to India, after she expressed concern about not having sufficient funds to pay for this unexpected (and certainly expensive) return airfare. But when she was about to board she was told by Qatar that once she landed in Mumbai, she would need to pay for the air ticket. She would be given her passport in Mumbai only after she cleared this payment. The Qatar officer was pointing to a number on the form she had signed last night. The only difference was that the Americans had freshly written this ticket price on the form. It wasn&rsquo;t there the previous night when the officer assured her of a free trip back home.</div>
		<br />
		<div>
			And, after another 22 hours and paying $1,438 ie; Rs 93,000 (in normal circumstances a one-way ticket from Mumbai to Chicago usually costs around Rs 40,000), she finally reached Mumbai.&nbsp;</div>
	</div>

"We were detained at the airport as always. For one-and-a-half hours. It was nice. It always happens when I come to America. Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself I take a trip to America," this is what Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan said at the Yale University, speaking to students, in April 2012.

When a trip to the US teaches who you are

An Indian traveller pens down her horrific experience at Chicago's O'Hare airport

Also Read

APJ Abdul Kalam will be laid to rest at his home town Rameswaram

APJ Abdul Kalam: A youth icon who connected with all

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam passes away

Jayalalithaa to skip APJ Abdul Kalam's funeral due to poor health

Madhya Pradesh to incorporate Kalam's life sketch in school curriculum

Explore News