When queuing at an airport check-in desk, we always look around, see our future 'flight colleagues' with a little book in their hands, sometimes it is bordeaux, sometimes green, sometimes blue. Got it, it's a passport. a part from their colours, they must all be the same i thought... well, apparently quit not the case...
I queue at the ID check to go to Bilbao and chat with my Lithuanian friend, a young professional that has travelled half the world.
I don't pay too much attention... and now it's my turn. The Spanish Guardia Civil starts to look at me in a strange way, a bit more strange than usual, and starts a series of question: Do you know that person? Since when? What do you do in life? What does she do in life?... Short answers, a long silence, a long and defying exchange of looks, he finally hands over my passport, almost unhappy not to have some more action in his day.
Nice week in Bilbao... many times during my stay i thought that it was wonderful to see Guernica, drink Cider and eat pinxos with friends that actually experienced the Soviet regime. Freedom of movement, encounters, discoveries.. I love you my dear Europe.
We go back to the airport and queue for the check-in... same logic but this time it's four Lithuanians and me with my deep-red Italian passport.
We are (not so kindly) asked by the hostess to go to another des for a further check of our passport. WE, the four Lithuanians and me...
A further check occurs in another desk, a short queue but time goes by... i am thinking that it will be hard for me to shop, to take the last things for friends and family, some newspapers for the flights, maybe a big chocolate bar too...
And then... i don't know what happens but questions start to run out of my mouth, in an angry tone, to the desk officer checking my passport : Why us? Why me and four Lithuanians, how come nobody else from our queue is asked to go through this so-called 'random check'???
No explanation whatsoever, she is just an employee from an airline, she does not have to give us explanations.
I ask to see a superior, i ask for a reclamation form, i get one to send to the Basque Government, where me and the lady we are supposed to agree (!) on my reclamation...
I put down my anger in black ink, the word discrimination come back several time.
I adore the sense of security, don't misunderstand me, but how come must i be the one causing insecurity just because i happen to have Lithuanian friends? The i thought that an easy cliché was going around security managers in all European Airports : Italians are mobsters, Lithuanians are call-girls, find them in the same queue and you have the perfect match for a "trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation case".
Conclusions :
- Bilbao lost around 100 € of extra spending at the airport, we had no time to buy anything and we had to run to the gate.
- Lithuanians passports are the equivalent of a British Driving Licence, according to security standards.
But still, knowing that hundreds of passports are being stolen directly from the EU FA ministries every year (i particularly remember a Belgian situation...), i have not seen any Belgian in my 'second thoughts' queue...
This queue was a new sort of enforced cooperation, a club for few, something like the Euro-Zone, but where actually you are not able to spend your euros.
