“Are you Italian? A passport is not enough.” Here’s what happens to people traveling to the UK

If you are Italian, French or Greek, in short, if you are European, and even worse if you are “Mediterranean”, you passport It may not be enough to take a direct flight to the UK. There is no rule nor write anywhere. In fact, this has been happening for some time with some airlines. It was he who opened Pandora’s box Lara Barizotto, 26 years old of Italian descent lives and works in the British capital. Two days ago, he posted on Twitter a video of the discussion he had with the Ryanair hostess. “I need a document in addition to the passport to prove his identity”asks the assistant. The girl who works for the association “The 3 Million”, who was born after the UK left the European Union to defend the rights of European citizens, replied that there is no law that a passport should be combined with another document.

“It’s just random controls imposed by the company.”is the company employee’s justification low cost. But after being pressed by the young activist’s questions, she admitted that the “random” checks were in fact targeting citizens with “Italian, Greek and French” passports. “Italian passports are usually forged, as are Greek and French passports”, is the explanation. Lara continues to insist: “I don’t understand, no need to show another document”. But the employee commanded: “Miss, do you want to travel with us or not?”. In the end, the girl is forced to show a second identification document to get into the cabin with the other passengers.

“They kept telling me they were doing random checks, I knew this was not true, in fact I kept insisting, and in the end they admitted that my nationality, among others, was in the crossfire. It was all wrong and unmotivated”writes Lara on Twitter, asking for clarifications for vector. And his case is not isolated. “EasyJet prevented me from going to Palma de Mallorca because I hold a Romanian passport and was returning to the UK, where I lived for 12 years. They asked me for an additional document to prove my immigration status in the country”, writes on the same social network Andreea Dumitrache, and also works for the same organization. He was traveling, he said Republicfrom the Spanish island to Bristol, a day before her colleague received the same treatment because she had an Italian passport.

The same thing happened to me in Spain two weeks ago.another user replies. “In my case – he says – the identity document was not enough and so they asked me to show my passport as well.”. The organization that supports European citizens in the UK wrote to British Immigration Minister Kevin Foster last April asking for an explanation. The Ministry of the Interior, however, was contacted by Republic, explains that this is an internal airline procedure. In fact, there is no law that imposes on citizens of some countries, including Italy, the duty to provide further evidence of their identity or status in the country. But for a few months now checkups “Randomness” has become the practice for those who travel across the canal at low cost.

The reason will be mainly economic: if passengers who do not comply with the documents are refusedBoarding At the British border, the company bears the costs of repatriation. Those who do not wish to support them or pay the fine imposed by the authorities. However, the fact, which many denounce under Lara’s post, is that the attitude towards expatriates is becoming increasingly “hostile”. And the saying that “Italian passports are usually fake”, knows a lot about discrimination.