Now, Indian tourists face racial discrimination in Europe, US

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New Delhi: With the recent attacks on Indian students in Australia and Canada, racism against India is back in news. However, these are not isolated incidents. There have been past incidents of similar attacks in the US, UK, Canada and other European nations as well. However, the travel sector is the latest to join the accusations of racial discrimination against Indians.

In May, 11 Indian passengers who were on a transit halt were made to spend 13 hours at Paris Airport on a bottle of water and half sandwich. This was the second reported incident in a fortnight after as many as 53 Indians en-route to Mumbai from Boston spent 11 hours in the transit lounge of Charles de Gaulle Airport with virtually no food. When Air France extended vouchers worth 350 euros for future travel to each as compensation, passengers refused to accept and demanded an apology from the airline.

Speaking to FE about the incident, Rajinder Rai, president, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said, “Though Indians contribute a huge pie to the global travel and tourism industry, Indian tourists are not always welcomed by the nationals of another country as they are always approached with caution”.

Rai added that after the first incident on May 10, TAAI, which is one of the associations of travel agents, has voiced concerns with Air France officials, who wrote back stating such incidents will not get repeated in the future. “But, within a fortnight time another similar incident has come into light,” he said.

Such cases keep happening every now and then. The difference is that some get reported, others do now,” said Rajendra Churiwala, director, IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI).