Greek national accuses CY of Racism

A GREEK citizen intends to take Cyprus Airways (CY) to court for alleged racial discrimination against him, it emerged yesterday.
Nicolaos Bourboulis, an infrastructure consultant who resides in Italy but has a Greek father and Ethiopian mother, claims the incident occurred on Wednesday morning when airport officials suggested his passport was counterfeit, which delayed him so that he missed his flight.
“I arrived at the desk five to ten minutes before check-in. Then I collected my wrapped luggage and went to immigration.” At the immigration desk, he says, the assistant saw that he was a black man with a Greek passport, and asked him if he spoke Greek. “I replied ‘A little’ and then she said ‘this passport is a fake.’ and took it to be checked.”
By the time Immigration authorities had completed the checks; Bourboulis was too late to board the plane and had to spend €123 on penalties and alternate tickets. He also missed the meeting to which he was flying.
Bourboulis also alleges that airport manager acted abusively, accused him of being provocative and said to him “I tell you keep quiet and go.”
“I received no refund for missing my flight, there was nowhere private to discuss my complaints. They suggested I could email their complaints office but they did not give me an address.” Bourboulis said. Will he travel again on CY? “No, this is the last time.”
The airport manager described a different version of events yesterday, however. Asked what happened, he said “The point is that he came to the check-in three minutes after the flight had closed. The duty officer and support officer broke with regulation and let him in. By the time his bag was checked and loaded there were 18 minutes to go until take-off.”
“When I arrived it was too late to board, and he was shouting and murmuring. I said ‘Can I help you?’ and he shouted, ‘Who are you!’. He then shouted some more and pointed his finger at me.”
Both claim that the other raised their voices, though only the manager admitted to it. “I always raise my voice. I’m naturally a loud person, but it doesn’t mean I am trying to shout. ”  
Marina Dheere, Check-in supervisor on duty that day, explained that immigration authorities were concerned by the fact that Bourboulis had arrived late, was in a rushed manner and had checked in on-line. When the check-in staff became concerned about the veracity of the passport, they raised the matter and followed standard procedure.
Asked if there had been an element of racial profiling in the immigration Dheere told the Cyprus Mail “Definitely not. We process thousands of passengers from all ethnic backgrounds each year. If we began deciding based on race, then there would be a lot of people missing their flights.”
Dheere justified the decision to examine the passport further, saying “We have to be very careful; sometimes we have let fake passports through and have been fined. On other occasions we have suspected fakes and been proven correct.”
Cyprus Airways yesterday issued a statement, saying the airline had learned with “surprise and regret” that migrant support group KISA has reported “racist comments” towards a passenger by the company. KISA did not bother to crosscheck that the information in their report was correct. We reject outright that there was any racist statements made, CY said. The statement added that in 63 years, having transported tens of millions of passengers from all nationalities, colours and religions, they had never been accused of racism.”
Doros Polycarpou, Director of KISA, said yesterday “All that I can confirm is that this individual will instruct his lawyer to bring a case against Cyprus Airways.”