Why was I detained at Heathrow 10 years ago?
February 17, 2022 9:13 AM Subscribe
The recent FPPs on liminal spaces reminded me of being detained at the Heathrow airport ten years ago. My question is: why?
I won't get into every detail of everything that happened (although this is still really long!), but, in 2010 - 2011, my husband had a fellowship to study abroad in Denmark for about 5 months on a student visa. I was also in school, in the US, and stayed in the here, but came out to visit him for 10 days or so in December 2010. I flew from Seattle to London/Heathrow, and then London to Copenhagen, but was detained at Heathrow, and I'm still curious as to why.
I had picked up my luggage and then rechecked it. I was getting my ticket at the counter, answering questions about my trip, which clearly pinged some kind of suspicion with the ticket agent, specifically that I was separate from my husband and traveling without him. Someone else came and talked to me a bit about my trip, and then I was asked to go to a backroom.
I stayed there for probably about three hours. I missed my flight. Different people kept coming in and out and asking me a few questions at a time. The questions mostly revolved around my husband, and my relationship with him, and a lot were logistical--what was his address, what was his phone number, what was the school he was studying at? How long had we been married? There were also questions about my life: what was my job, how long had I been working there? They asked for my boss's name and phone number, which I gave to them, but it was not work hours in Seattle and they never talked to him.
They also called my husband at some point, and he said they asked him some of the same logistical questions, and confirmed that he knew I was traveling. There were, to me, a few questions about my return ticket, and if I was planning on going anywhere else while I was there. They also asked a question that I remember wondering if they thought my husband was abusive? But then they also called him and told him I was traveling in Europe by myself so if they were really concerned about that possibility, that would have been a super bad move. My husband and I were in our late 20s/early 30s at the time, and I remember that being an area of question--the program my husband was in skewed younger, and they asked about why he was in this program at his age (but how would they have known that? Just a Europe/US difference in general?).
Another mefite in one of the liminal spaces thread described an interaction where airport employees went through their luggage and asked about different items and forced them to explain each one; my experience wasn't quite as unusual, but they did take me into another room where my suitcase was, asked me to confirm it was mine, and then asked me about a few items in it. My suitcase had clearly been opened and gone through already. One thing in particular I remember was they asked about a pair of shoes in my bag, pointing out that I was already wearing shoes. Why did I bring two pairs of shoes? And I felt really condescending but explained that the boots I was wearing were for hiking, or being in the snow, and the shoes I had packed were nice and more comfortable, and I might wear them to an art museum or restaurant. They let me go, I caught another flight, and arrived in Copenhagen with no problem. We also traveled to Sweden for a day while we were there with no issue, and my flight home was totally normal (through Charles de Gaul, I think).
For some additional details, I am a white woman of Mediterranean descent with olive skin and dark hair. When I've traveled in Europe before, people often assume I am of Israeli or sometimes Middle Eastern descent. I have a common first name, and a common last name. My husband's name is laughably Irish sounding, and they did ask about that--if he was from Ireland (I mean, he's American, so, no, but he's also barely of Irish descent). I was also extremely polite and compliant the entire time, as is my nature.
My question is: what the heck? What suspicions did I ping? Theories include: smuggling something, trying to move to Europe without a visa (hence asking about return travel, and my job in Seattle), or having a similar name to someone on their radar. None of these really make 100% sense, and such a smattering of questions were asked. Any other insights?
I won't get into every detail of everything that happened (although this is still really long!), but, in 2010 - 2011, my husband had a fellowship to study abroad in Denmark for about 5 months on a student visa. I was also in school, in the US, and stayed in the here, but came out to visit him for 10 days or so in December 2010. I flew from Seattle to London/Heathrow, and then London to Copenhagen, but was detained at Heathrow, and I'm still curious as to why.
I had picked up my luggage and then rechecked it. I was getting my ticket at the counter, answering questions about my trip, which clearly pinged some kind of suspicion with the ticket agent, specifically that I was separate from my husband and traveling without him. Someone else came and talked to me a bit about my trip, and then I was asked to go to a backroom.
I stayed there for probably about three hours. I missed my flight. Different people kept coming in and out and asking me a few questions at a time. The questions mostly revolved around my husband, and my relationship with him, and a lot were logistical--what was his address, what was his phone number, what was the school he was studying at? How long had we been married? There were also questions about my life: what was my job, how long had I been working there? They asked for my boss's name and phone number, which I gave to them, but it was not work hours in Seattle and they never talked to him.
They also called my husband at some point, and he said they asked him some of the same logistical questions, and confirmed that he knew I was traveling. There were, to me, a few questions about my return ticket, and if I was planning on going anywhere else while I was there. They also asked a question that I remember wondering if they thought my husband was abusive? But then they also called him and told him I was traveling in Europe by myself so if they were really concerned about that possibility, that would have been a super bad move. My husband and I were in our late 20s/early 30s at the time, and I remember that being an area of question--the program my husband was in skewed younger, and they asked about why he was in this program at his age (but how would they have known that? Just a Europe/US difference in general?).
Another mefite in one of the liminal spaces thread described an interaction where airport employees went through their luggage and asked about different items and forced them to explain each one; my experience wasn't quite as unusual, but they did take me into another room where my suitcase was, asked me to confirm it was mine, and then asked me about a few items in it. My suitcase had clearly been opened and gone through already. One thing in particular I remember was they asked about a pair of shoes in my bag, pointing out that I was already wearing shoes. Why did I bring two pairs of shoes? And I felt really condescending but explained that the boots I was wearing were for hiking, or being in the snow, and the shoes I had packed were nice and more comfortable, and I might wear them to an art museum or restaurant. They let me go, I caught another flight, and arrived in Copenhagen with no problem. We also traveled to Sweden for a day while we were there with no issue, and my flight home was totally normal (through Charles de Gaul, I think).
For some additional details, I am a white woman of Mediterranean descent with olive skin and dark hair. When I've traveled in Europe before, people often assume I am of Israeli or sometimes Middle Eastern descent. I have a common first name, and a common last name. My husband's name is laughably Irish sounding, and they did ask about that--if he was from Ireland (I mean, he's American, so, no, but he's also barely of Irish descent). I was also extremely polite and compliant the entire time, as is my nature.
My question is: what the heck? What suspicions did I ping? Theories include: smuggling something, trying to move to Europe without a visa (hence asking about return travel, and my job in Seattle), or having a similar name to someone on their radar. None of these really make 100% sense, and such a smattering of questions were asked. Any other insights?
There is a >0 possibility they thought you were trafficked and/or a sex worker. Having worked in public policy at around that time, I can say there was a lot of training to the law and border enforcement level provided by entities that pushed a narrative of women from outside the EU masquerading as being of Eastern or Southern European origin in order to be moved around by pimps. A lot of it was appearance-based racist and xenophobic profiling. This is of course blatant b.s. and many of the soi disant antitrafficking charities that pushed this line in the UK either no longer exist or have pivoted away from that narrative.
You might object 'but I'm an American!' The UK does not care. At that time, if you were non-Commonwealth and non-EU, you were more suspect. Period.
If you are interested in this topic generally, and how it ties into liminality, I can highly recommend the book Sex At The Margins by Laura Agustin.
Another possibility is that they thought you were trying to get into the EU and claim settlement rights as a spouse that you would not otherwise have been entitled to. This dovetails with the above in that the UK Home Office at that time was also ramping up panic about overseas brides who had never met their husbands (of course, the UK was still part of the EU at the time).
posted by Ardnamurchan at 9:25 AM on February 17, 2022 [17 favorites]
You might object 'but I'm an American!' The UK does not care. At that time, if you were non-Commonwealth and non-EU, you were more suspect. Period.
If you are interested in this topic generally, and how it ties into liminality, I can highly recommend the book Sex At The Margins by Laura Agustin.
Another possibility is that they thought you were trying to get into the EU and claim settlement rights as a spouse that you would not otherwise have been entitled to. This dovetails with the above in that the UK Home Office at that time was also ramping up panic about overseas brides who had never met their husbands (of course, the UK was still part of the EU at the time).
posted by Ardnamurchan at 9:25 AM on February 17, 2022 [17 favorites]
Response by poster: OH YES I am a US citizen, as is my husband
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:26 AM on February 17, 2022
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:26 AM on February 17, 2022
I don't know, but I had a very bad experience at Heathrow myself in the exact same timeframe as you. I found an old comment where I talked about it. Something that I didn't mention in that comment but that also happened (a LOT of content was covered by this shitty agent) is that I was deeply broke and unemployed at the time, as many recent college grads were in 2010-2011 and this asshole had the gall to ask what I had studied in school and then chastised me for not choosing a more employable major.
It's been a decade and remembering this interaction is still upsetting, and I wasn't even formally detained, just stuck in an awful defense of my life/choices/relationship for approx. 20 minutes.
My headcannon is that the UK border patrol was just giving out extra bonuses that year for being megadicks and I drew the short straw getting into a line with someone trying to meet their dicking quota.
posted by phunniemee at 9:29 AM on February 17, 2022 [20 favorites]
It's been a decade and remembering this interaction is still upsetting, and I wasn't even formally detained, just stuck in an awful defense of my life/choices/relationship for approx. 20 minutes.
My headcannon is that the UK border patrol was just giving out extra bonuses that year for being megadicks and I drew the short straw getting into a line with someone trying to meet their dicking quota.
posted by phunniemee at 9:29 AM on February 17, 2022 [20 favorites]
Oh, the immigration angle entirely makes sense, as does racial-type profiling. The Scandinavian countries have a long history of fairly generous asylum policies, but a pretty strict application policy, and it would have been a black mark on the UK officials that let you get to Danish soil, and frankly they would have been anxious to turn you around and send you back to the US before you got loose in the UK as well.
I've been grilled hard about my intentions to GTFO in both the UK and Denmark (when I had a Swedish student visa) as early as the 80s and 90s, not to the extent that I missed a flight but I definitely made a train late once. Very likely if you'd simply said you were on vacation visiting friends and showed them a return ticket, you would have been on your way much much faster.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:30 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've been grilled hard about my intentions to GTFO in both the UK and Denmark (when I had a Swedish student visa) as early as the 80s and 90s, not to the extent that I missed a flight but I definitely made a train late once. Very likely if you'd simply said you were on vacation visiting friends and showed them a return ticket, you would have been on your way much much faster.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:30 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
You probably racked up too many points on whatever mechanism they were using to calculate risk of overstaying or absconding for the cushy life of working in and living above a takeaway. Foreign student married to foreign student on a short study visa in a third country. Plus a healthy dollop of racism and xenophobia, of course.
posted by praemunire at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 9:31 AM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
For what it's worth, having a different name than my spouse and taking flights together that return to different cities (we've often lived far apart) seems to raise flags often. I've never been detained for nearly that long without other quite obvious reasons. But, there's a 50% chance I get pulled aside and have to talk to the boss' boss for ten minutes at nearly every Latin American border when traveling with my spouse. (And I'm a confident white guy in a sport coat.) The questions usually seem to be aimed at trying to establish that we're actually married and not pretending to be married; I'm guessing it's an immigration thing?
posted by eotvos at 9:32 AM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 9:32 AM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Mod note: A few comments deleted, and a minor edit made with commenter permission to stave off misunderstanding. Carry on.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:50 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:50 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
No direct experience in that timeframe, but when I travelled through Heathrow in the late '90s with my small high school class, virtually every person who wasn't white-white (like, "family could be assumed to be of northern European origin") was flagged and pulled aside for questioning. All were US citizens, some were US-born children of Indian immigrants, but others were people who were indeterminately white (by US reckoning, at least) with olive skin/black hair. Other than skin color or last names like Shah or Patel, the only even remotely suspicious thing about us was that we were a group of students travelling with teachers/chaperones but no parents.
posted by pullayup at 9:59 AM on February 17, 2022
posted by pullayup at 9:59 AM on February 17, 2022
trying to move to Europe without a visa (hence asking about return travel, and my job in Seattle)
I do some immigration work for my company and there have been a couple of times when our people were "sent to the back room" for questioning as they entered the US. Both times it was relatively young travelers (mid-20s) who were traveling as visitors on an ESTA (or "visa waiver"). The questions sound like the ones you got - poking at their stories about where they were going, where they were staying while there, when they were headed home, how they could support themselves while in the US, who was paying for what, and what their job was. We train our people to anticipate and honestly answer "why don't you have a work visa" questions, but these were more like "are you really a temporary visitor and can we count on you going home when you say you will" questions.
2010 was still at the tail end of the Great Recession in many places, and so there may have been some lingering anxiety about people entering as a visitor and then overstaying.
posted by AgentRocket at 10:01 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I do some immigration work for my company and there have been a couple of times when our people were "sent to the back room" for questioning as they entered the US. Both times it was relatively young travelers (mid-20s) who were traveling as visitors on an ESTA (or "visa waiver"). The questions sound like the ones you got - poking at their stories about where they were going, where they were staying while there, when they were headed home, how they could support themselves while in the US, who was paying for what, and what their job was. We train our people to anticipate and honestly answer "why don't you have a work visa" questions, but these were more like "are you really a temporary visitor and can we count on you going home when you say you will" questions.
2010 was still at the tail end of the Great Recession in many places, and so there may have been some lingering anxiety about people entering as a visitor and then overstaying.
posted by AgentRocket at 10:01 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you look vaguely Middle Eastern, that's probably enough. I've been detained too, for no reason at all except for looking vaguely (vaguely!!) Middle Eastern.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:58 AM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:58 AM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
I was detained at the airport (can't remember if it was Heathrow or Gatwick) after I asked for directions. I only had a carry-on suitcase and I was staying for 2 weeks, which apparently indicated I was a drug smuggler. He seemed outraged that I would travel with so little luggage. They asked if I would consent to a body search. I asked if that was required by law and they let me go. I'm a Black woman.
posted by shoesietart at 11:01 AM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by shoesietart at 11:01 AM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
Just another person affirming that Heathrow customs is overly harsh - I (white but also olive skin) was not detained but given a surprising (to me, as an American) hard time when entering the country in 2015. My length of stay was perfectly legal (3 months), and I even had a formal reason for the visit, but they really grilled me, though I was not detained. All of this is to say, it seems like their bar for deciding someone is worth giving a hard time is rather low.
posted by coffeecat at 11:38 AM on February 17, 2022
posted by coffeecat at 11:38 AM on February 17, 2022
A well designed system should do this to random people occasionally They probably have a set of heruristics that tell them who to subject to a deep examination but there have to be instances where you flag people that don't fit into the rules. The people who are attempting to get past border security are well aware of who is going to get hassled. An occasional out of pattern deep search isn't likely to actually catch someone but it injects a bit of uncertainity into the opponents' plans. A system that mostly harrases obvious targets, within the racist frame that border security is operating within, has to be trained on less obvious targets in order to be effective at all.
posted by rdr at 11:57 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rdr at 11:57 AM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'd go with "they were worried there was the possibility you were being sex-trafficked unknowingly". Some background on this issue (with interviews of border staff at Heathrow) in these papers by Lynch and Hadjimatheou (1; 2). The fact that you have a different name from your husband, were travelling separately, and possibly your perceived ethnicity might have factored here. Around that time, "modern slavery" was starting to get a higher profile, but no-one really knew how to identify or respond to it.
Alternatively, smuggling is perhaps a possibility.
Or that you were planning on over-staying or working when your visa didn't permit that (though I wonder why the UK would be worried? You'd be Denmark's problem if you did, and you wouldn't be able to get back into the UK without going through border control, because the UK wasn't in the Schengen area). FWIW, I know Americans who did exactly this, around this time [one had student visa, partner snuck in and worked without a visa].
I suspect when they asked about your shoes they didn't care about the answer, they were checking how you answered - whether you just calmly explained why, or whether you got flustered or defensive. (I once had an immigration official tell me I'd been with my partner long enough and I should get married...).
posted by Pink Frost at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2022
Alternatively, smuggling is perhaps a possibility.
Or that you were planning on over-staying or working when your visa didn't permit that (though I wonder why the UK would be worried? You'd be Denmark's problem if you did, and you wouldn't be able to get back into the UK without going through border control, because the UK wasn't in the Schengen area). FWIW, I know Americans who did exactly this, around this time [one had student visa, partner snuck in and worked without a visa].
I suspect when they asked about your shoes they didn't care about the answer, they were checking how you answered - whether you just calmly explained why, or whether you got flustered or defensive. (I once had an immigration official tell me I'd been with my partner long enough and I should get married...).
posted by Pink Frost at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2022
It's hard to know the real answer to this question. Heathrow always seems a bit of an extra pain in the ass compared to other European airports, but as people have pointed out, around that time I think all the European airports were on high alert for … whatever (terrorism, trafficking, abuse of tourist visas, smuggling of goods, etc). It could be that your presentation, your itinerary, or your answers to the first couple questions set them off, or it could be that they just "randomly" selected you (which could been profiling or could really have been random, as rdr points out).
I'm a white man with a US passport and I've been through AMS and LHR a bunch of times. That period was the only time I've ever gotten more than a cursory two questions at AMS, but even then by the end of the series of questions I think the inspector was just amusing himself. Having become satisfied with my answers as to my itinerary (visiting my sister in Haarlem) and that day's transit plans (actually meeting her in Amsterdam, via train and tram) he sent me on my way with a cheery "you can buy an umbrella downstairs." Compared to AMS the people at LHR always seem to be on much higher alert, so ending up in a holding room there does seem much more likely.
posted by fedward at 12:11 PM on February 17, 2022
I'm a white man with a US passport and I've been through AMS and LHR a bunch of times. That period was the only time I've ever gotten more than a cursory two questions at AMS, but even then by the end of the series of questions I think the inspector was just amusing himself. Having become satisfied with my answers as to my itinerary (visiting my sister in Haarlem) and that day's transit plans (actually meeting her in Amsterdam, via train and tram) he sent me on my way with a cheery "you can buy an umbrella downstairs." Compared to AMS the people at LHR always seem to be on much higher alert, so ending up in a holding room there does seem much more likely.
posted by fedward at 12:11 PM on February 17, 2022
Right so if you had two tickets, instead of a through ticket (ie you had to collect your bag and clear customs and immigration), then you were entering the UK. Not having a through ticket makes them squirrely AF because one they let you in, you can just exit the airport and never come back.
You are much more likely to trigger them if you are a) not white, b) student level or under poor, c) from outside the EU. Extra trigger points if you have anything interesting in your passport.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:25 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
You are much more likely to trigger them if you are a) not white, b) student level or under poor, c) from outside the EU. Extra trigger points if you have anything interesting in your passport.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:25 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Not having a through ticket makes them squirrely AF because one they let you in, you can just exit the airport and never come back.
Yeah, exactly. I think they were less worried about Denmark and more worried that OP would skip from the airport.
posted by praemunire at 12:38 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yeah, exactly. I think they were less worried about Denmark and more worried that OP would skip from the airport.
posted by praemunire at 12:38 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Another anecdote, which happened upon returning to the US once, I was pulled aside from the passport control line and kept for about three hours, and asked a lot of questions about my travels, why I had a foreign girlfriend, how I earned money, and so on. I never got an explanation, but the very last person to talk to me looked at the notes, looked at my passport, and said "I don't know why you are here. You can go."
posted by Nothing at 1:24 PM on February 17, 2022
posted by Nothing at 1:24 PM on February 17, 2022
Not having a through ticket makes them squirrely AF because one they let you in, you can just exit the airport and never come back.
True true. As an additional point, sometimes when transiting you have to clear customs and re-check baggage even if you've booked just one ticket with multiple flights. (Or at least I've had do that when transiting the USA - it wasn't possible to just stay airside and never clear customs and immigration).
posted by Pink Frost at 2:31 PM on February 17, 2022
True true. As an additional point, sometimes when transiting you have to clear customs and re-check baggage even if you've booked just one ticket with multiple flights. (Or at least I've had do that when transiting the USA - it wasn't possible to just stay airside and never clear customs and immigration).
posted by Pink Frost at 2:31 PM on February 17, 2022
My experience with British customs around that time is that they were very, very, very anxious to prevent people claiming to be passing through the country who were in fact planning to stay there and, steal their jobs or whatever, without proper visas.
I had a very difficult encounter with British border agents at the Gare du Nord in 2011 when trying to take the chunnel from Paris to London, they took me aside and asked lots of similar questions because they seemed to think my story absurd: that i had a hostel (where, which hostel, what's the address?) and was flying out of heathrow 48 hours later (where's your ticket?) etc. I had no smartphone at the time (did they exist? i don't think so) was eventually able to produce my ticket via the free 3g on my first generation Kindle (my plan was just to pick it up at the airport) and that satisfied them and they let me through. Luckily I had arrived a few hours before my train so I was able to still catch it.
posted by dis_integration at 2:57 PM on February 17, 2022
I had a very difficult encounter with British border agents at the Gare du Nord in 2011 when trying to take the chunnel from Paris to London, they took me aside and asked lots of similar questions because they seemed to think my story absurd: that i had a hostel (where, which hostel, what's the address?) and was flying out of heathrow 48 hours later (where's your ticket?) etc. I had no smartphone at the time (did they exist? i don't think so) was eventually able to produce my ticket via the free 3g on my first generation Kindle (my plan was just to pick it up at the airport) and that satisfied them and they let me through. Luckily I had arrived a few hours before my train so I was able to still catch it.
posted by dis_integration at 2:57 PM on February 17, 2022
Hmmm.... I know my sister was questioned heavily around that time because she was going to Greenock.
The security agent asked her why and she said for vacation, visit family.
And they found that awful suspicious.
posted by markbrendanawitzmissesus at 3:57 PM on February 17, 2022
The security agent asked her why and she said for vacation, visit family.
And they found that awful suspicious.
posted by markbrendanawitzmissesus at 3:57 PM on February 17, 2022
I can't speak to the specifics, but customs and immigration in the UK have always been hard for me. I'm a white university educated American male.
When I was living and working in Germany I flew through London many times on my travels back to the States. Even on my way from Berlin to the US I would get hassled, especially if I had to spend the night in England and then catch a connecting flight. They are jealous and protective of their land. Even now, back in the US, when I travel to Jamaica to see family, I have to produce evidence of where I am staying (even at a family member's address) and proof of when I am leaving. Not that I wouldn't love to live and work in Jamaica, of course!
So I think this was just normal checking to make sure you weren't being smuggled, exploiting something to work there (or another EU country), or something just as bad. Maybe you met the bar of "we need to investigate this further" because of the names, jobs, visas, etc. But it could have also just been racism. I believe that, too.
posted by Snowishberlin at 4:14 PM on February 17, 2022
When I was living and working in Germany I flew through London many times on my travels back to the States. Even on my way from Berlin to the US I would get hassled, especially if I had to spend the night in England and then catch a connecting flight. They are jealous and protective of their land. Even now, back in the US, when I travel to Jamaica to see family, I have to produce evidence of where I am staying (even at a family member's address) and proof of when I am leaving. Not that I wouldn't love to live and work in Jamaica, of course!
So I think this was just normal checking to make sure you weren't being smuggled, exploiting something to work there (or another EU country), or something just as bad. Maybe you met the bar of "we need to investigate this further" because of the names, jobs, visas, etc. But it could have also just been racism. I believe that, too.
posted by Snowishberlin at 4:14 PM on February 17, 2022
Not having a through ticket makes them squirrely AF because one they let you in, you can just exit the airport and never come back.
Well, gee, definitely make it impossible to make the connecting transit, then!
My older brother was the one always getting hassled at Heathrow. He's a white male but also very tall and was usually wearing a band shirt and some kind of punk boots. We figured it was the height actually as the first attention getting. Hmmmm....who should we pull randomly to hassle today, I see that guy.... We gave extra time at airports if we travelled with him as he'd almost always get extra questions if we had any kind of border crossing.
posted by amanda at 4:23 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Well, gee, definitely make it impossible to make the connecting transit, then!
My older brother was the one always getting hassled at Heathrow. He's a white male but also very tall and was usually wearing a band shirt and some kind of punk boots. We figured it was the height actually as the first attention getting. Hmmmm....who should we pull randomly to hassle today, I see that guy.... We gave extra time at airports if we travelled with him as he'd almost always get extra questions if we had any kind of border crossing.
posted by amanda at 4:23 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Asking an unexpected question (in your case, justifying having more than one pair of shoes) is a way to identify whether someone has been coached in their other answers.
If someone calmly and fluently answers questions about their onward travel plans, their spouse, their marriage and their job but then goes to pieces when asked about their shoes or some other unpredictable topic, it's likely the other answers were rehearsed which is obviously a red flag.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 5:30 PM on February 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
If someone calmly and fluently answers questions about their onward travel plans, their spouse, their marriage and their job but then goes to pieces when asked about their shoes or some other unpredictable topic, it's likely the other answers were rehearsed which is obviously a red flag.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 5:30 PM on February 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
Many years ago, I came back from a trip to my extended family in Wales, bringing back a Boots-brand (yes, the pharmacy) fruit press, used for squeezing out juice from fruit to make homemade wine, as my dad's sister was keen on transferring this handy gadget to him through me to save on shipping costs. Because my family grew up poor and this saved money. This took up a fair amount of space in my hiking backpack.
At Heathrow, I was a bit late (not too late) for checking in to my flight back to the US. I hadn't thought anything about being nervous, though, as I usually am around authority. Whilst waiting to check in, I was pulled aside by a kindly bespectacled gentleman who wouldn't look anything in the world like a hard-assed security man, except that he was exceptionally and politely insistent about pulling me out of the line for a more deliberate baggage inspection and interrogation that made me wonder if I'd miss my flight back to my parents.
I don't know if Boots makes fruit presses any longer, but any oenophile or zymurgist of those decades past might know a little of what I'm talking about when I say the goddamned thing looks like a terrorist weapon, all holes and levers and metal and so on. And this was before 9/11, for whatever that's worth.
I'm as whitebread as it gets, too, so while I don't discount burnt-in racist racism and racist distrust in security people, I imagine they have seen all kinds of people trying to smuggle shit through, but especially white people in or going through the UK.
It was a weird experience — but on reflection, I suspect security people play the odds based on things that look faintly abnormal to them, and a zitty geek like me bringing through a bulky hiker's backpack through airport travel is probably worth a question or two.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:02 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
At Heathrow, I was a bit late (not too late) for checking in to my flight back to the US. I hadn't thought anything about being nervous, though, as I usually am around authority. Whilst waiting to check in, I was pulled aside by a kindly bespectacled gentleman who wouldn't look anything in the world like a hard-assed security man, except that he was exceptionally and politely insistent about pulling me out of the line for a more deliberate baggage inspection and interrogation that made me wonder if I'd miss my flight back to my parents.
I don't know if Boots makes fruit presses any longer, but any oenophile or zymurgist of those decades past might know a little of what I'm talking about when I say the goddamned thing looks like a terrorist weapon, all holes and levers and metal and so on. And this was before 9/11, for whatever that's worth.
I'm as whitebread as it gets, too, so while I don't discount burnt-in racist racism and racist distrust in security people, I imagine they have seen all kinds of people trying to smuggle shit through, but especially white people in or going through the UK.
It was a weird experience — but on reflection, I suspect security people play the odds based on things that look faintly abnormal to them, and a zitty geek like me bringing through a bulky hiker's backpack through airport travel is probably worth a question or two.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:02 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
About ten years ago I was travelling long haul with a stop in Istanbul before my final destination which was LHR. I almost never get stopped at borders and I had made similar journeys many times before.
At Istanbul I had just cleared customs when a guy in plain clothes wearing a badge approached and asked me about my travel plans. Then, while I was still in customs at Heathrow, a uniformed officer approached and quizzed me cheerily about my plans and the contents of my luggage. Both of them let me go pretty quickly, after maybe thirty seconds to a minute of questions.
Maybe it was coincidence, but being stopped is so unusual for me that it happening twice in the same journey in two different countries makes me fairly sure I was suspicious in some way. Neither of these guys knew my travel plans or nationality when they stopped me unless I'd been flagged earlier in the process and they'd been told to watch out for me.
The only difference in my appearance I can think of from any other trip I'd taken was that I was moving between countries long term and so my hold and carry-on luggage were both pushing the size and weight limits. But lots of people carry heavy baggage, so I never figured it out.
So while I'm not discounting any of the other possibilities raised above, one of the factors that caused you to be detained may have been similarly opaque.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 5:50 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
At Istanbul I had just cleared customs when a guy in plain clothes wearing a badge approached and asked me about my travel plans. Then, while I was still in customs at Heathrow, a uniformed officer approached and quizzed me cheerily about my plans and the contents of my luggage. Both of them let me go pretty quickly, after maybe thirty seconds to a minute of questions.
Maybe it was coincidence, but being stopped is so unusual for me that it happening twice in the same journey in two different countries makes me fairly sure I was suspicious in some way. Neither of these guys knew my travel plans or nationality when they stopped me unless I'd been flagged earlier in the process and they'd been told to watch out for me.
The only difference in my appearance I can think of from any other trip I'd taken was that I was moving between countries long term and so my hold and carry-on luggage were both pushing the size and weight limits. But lots of people carry heavy baggage, so I never figured it out.
So while I'm not discounting any of the other possibilities raised above, one of the factors that caused you to be detained may have been similarly opaque.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 5:50 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by praemunire at 9:24 AM on February 17, 2022