The Guardian: “Typecast as a terrorist”

Riz Ahmed, a Pakistani-British actor and rapper who struggled as a young actor to find work beyond two-dimensional stereotypical roles and who faced nearly constant interrogation and difficulty flying internationally after acting in such films as The Road to Guantanamo and Four Lions, says that airports and auditions are quite similar. In both, he is trying to play a fully realized three-dimensional character to an audience—producers and casting agents and immigration and security officers—who can’t get past the color of his skin and his “Muslim-sounding” name. Ahmed says:

You see, the pitfalls of the audition room and the airport interrogation room are the same. They are places where the threat of rejection is real. They are also places where you are reduced to your marketability or threat-level, where the length of your facial hair can be a deal-breaker, where you are seen, and hence see yourself, in reductive labels – never as “just a bloke called Dave”.  

Ahmed’s difficulty at airports—he was once illegally detained at Luton Airport where British intelligence officers insulted, threatened, and attacked him—echoes the treatment that many other Asians receive when traveling internationally, including actor Shah Rukh Khan, the “King of Bollywood,” who has been repeatedly detained at US immigration and who famously said: "Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America. The immigration guys kick the star out of stardom."

After Ahmed’s experience at Luton airport—where he was illegally detained after having just won a film award for a movie about illegal detention—he wrote a song called “Post 9/11 Blues,” which included lyrics such as: “We’re all suspects so watch your back / I farted and got arrested for a chemical attack.”

In an airport holding pen, Ahmed explains, with few exceptions there are twenty slight variations of his own face, “like a Bollywood remake of Being John Malkovich. It was a reminder: you are a type, whose face says things before your mouth opens; you are a signifier before you are a person; you are back at stage one.” He adds: 

The holding pen also had that familiar audition room fear. Everyone is nervous, but the prospect of solidarity is undercut by competition. In this situation, you’re all fighting to graduate out of a reductive purgatory and into some recognition of your unique personhood. In one way or another you are all saying: “I’m not like the rest of them.”

With his passport stamped with visas and entries to such countries as Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, Ahmed found himself being questioned again and again. These “airport auditions” included such questions as “Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?” and although so far they have always been successful in the end, “they involved the experience of being typecast, and when that happens enough, you internalize the role written for you by others. Now, like an over-eager method actor, I was struggling to break character.”

As he becomes better known (he has been featured recently in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, HBO’s The Night Of, and the latest Jason Bourne movie), his experience at US airports becomes smoother. Now he is often able to find the additional airport baggage search and questioning “hilarious rather than bruising.”  

“But this isn’t a success story,” he says. “I see most of my fellow Malkoviches still arched back, spines bent to snapping as they try to limbo under that rope. These days it’s likely that no one resembles me in the waiting room for an acting audition, and the same is true of everyone being waved through with me at US immigration. In both spaces, my exception proves the rule.”

NY Times: “European Union to Consider Requiring Visas for U.S. Travelers”

The days of visa free travel for Americans to the European Union may be over. While Americans take for granted the ease of traveling without a visa to many European countries—while, conversely, many Europeans travel to the US visa-free under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP)—the European Union is threatening to change the requirements if the US government does not agree to include additional European member states, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland, and Romania, in the Visa Waiver Program. Although the deadline for the decision was this week, and has now been moved to this summer, the timing is not ideal, as the New York Times explains: 

The escalating dispute comes at a time when Washington is especially concerned about security, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Europe and the presence of suspected terrorists in the flow of migrants to the Continent out of the Middle East. Should the commission decide to move toward imposing visa requirements, it could be a blow to trans-Atlantic relations just before a visit to Europe by President Obama and could complicate negotiations on other issues, including a proposed trade deal.

Security concerns, however, haven’t affected certain European officials who are pressuring Washington to include the additional countries in visa-free travel. “Over the past months, all sides have intensified their efforts in order to reach tangible and concrete progress,” Mina Andreeva, a spokeswoman for the commission, said in a statement. “Our goal is full reciprocal visa waiver with our strategic partners,” she said.

The Visa Waiver Program currently includes thirty-eight member countries, and the program enables eligible citizens of approved countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of ninety days or less without first obtaining a visa, as long as they apply and are approved under the ESTA program. Last year additional security measures were added to the Visa Waiver Program.

In Bulgaria, the economy minister, Bojidar Loukarsky, reportedly told local news media in 2014 that his country’s support for a trade pact with the US was contingent on visa-free travel to the US for his country’s citizens, while Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, disagreed, telling the New York Times: “No matter what happens with visas, this should not impact trade negotiations with the United States as immigration plays no formal part in those talks.”

Artur Habant, the spokesman for the Permanent Representation of Poland to the European Union in Brussels, said it’s a matter of fairness, as US citizens can travel to Poland visa-free. “Polish governments have been lobbying for a long time with the U.S. authorities, in Congress and in the administration, to eliminate this obstacle in traveling to the United States.” US officials, however, are concerned that countries such as Romania have not met the requirements to be included in the VWP. 

Telegraph: “Your Smartphone Could Be Your Next Passport”

The modern smartphone is an amazing device. Apart from the magic of making phone calls, browsing the Internet, and sending emails and texts to your heart’s content, it can control your home thermostat, be used as a level, measure heart rates, and at some point in the near future, may act as a passport for international travel. De La Rue, a British company that prints banknotes and also produces passports, is currently developing technology to store passports within mobile phones, potentially allowing people the freedom to travel without hard copies of their passport. 

“Technology is at the forefront of De La Rue’s business, and as you would expect we are always looking at new innovations and technology solutions for our customers around the world,” a spokesman told the Telegraph. “Paperless passports are one of many initiatives that we are currently looking at, but at the moment it is a concept that is at the very early stages of development.”

The “paperless passports” could be stored on a smartphone and accessed by immigration officials similar to how readers can scan modern passports with readable chips. “Digital passports on your phone will require new hardware on the device in order to securely store the electronic passport so it cannot be copied from the phone,” David Jevans, who works for security company Proofpoint, told the Telegraph.  “It will also have to be communicated wirelessly to passport readers, because doing it onscreen like an airline ticket QR code can be copied or spoofed.” While the prospect of not having to worry about remembering your passport when traveling may be beneficial, the security challenges may be difficult to overcome, especially since phones are especially susceptible to being stolen and certain phones can reportedly be quickly unlocked.

Heading toward a paperless future, Australia has been the first country to make the first step with a trial run of “cloud passports.” The result of a hack-athon held by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, which “culminated in an X-Factor style audition before the secretary Peter Varghese, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, Assistant Minister Steve Ciobo and Chris Vein from the World Bank,” the “cloud passport” will store the traveler's identity and biometrics data in a cloud to be securely accessed, the details of which are still in development. As with a passport in a phone, critics point out the security concerns with sensitive personal and biographic information as well as travel information stored in an accessible cloud for every individual in the country. "We wouldn't do it if it were not able to be secure,” Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said in CNet. “We are just trialling new ideas and we are just in the early stages of discussion.”

US Increasingly Denying Entry to Muslims and Individuals of Certain Countries

In recent weeks, Muslims and individuals from certain countries are reportedly being refused entry to the US, leading some to think that innocent individuals are being caught up in increased US security measures.

Muslim Family Headed to Disneyland Denied Entry

In one case, a British Muslim family was barred earlier this month from flying from Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom to the US for a vacation at Disneyland. Mohammed Zahid Mahmood said he and his family—which included two brothers and nine children—were not allowed to travel to the US for vacation, despite previously having obtained clearance. He told the BBC that his children were "traumatised, really upset" about the cancelled trip. "They think they've done something wrong," he said. "I want an explanation, and what's going to happen next. I would still like to go to America, I would like my kids to fulfil their dreams."

Stella Creasy, a member of the opposition Labour Party, said that her inquires to US officials on why her constituents—Mahmood and his family—were not allowed to board the flight to the US were not answered, and consequently she wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron to look into the matter, citing a "growing fear" among British Muslims that “aspects of Trump's plans are coming into practice even though they have been widely condemned.”

Because of other instances of US airlines either preventing Muslims or “Middle Eastern-looking” individuals from flying as well as alleged mistreatment, some think that presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslims visiting the US and other anti-Muslim sentiment and discrimination in the US has led to increased and overly-aggressive scrutiny of Muslim and Middle-Eastern travelers to the US.

While Cameron’s office said they are investigating the matter, a top Muslim group in the UK said the incident appears to be related to the travelers’ religion and is very concerning to British Muslims. A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman told ABC News that the "religion, faith or spiritual beliefs of an international traveler are not determining factors" for admittance to the US and that people can be denied entry for numerous reasons including health-related issues, prior criminal convictions, security concerns, or other grounds. The Muslim Council of Britain says the last-minute denial of boarding without explanation is unfair for Muslims. "There is a perception that such decisions are being made due to the faith or political activism of individuals," the council stated. 

Mahmood, whose family reportedly spent £9,000 on tickets for the Disneyland flights, told the Guardian that they received no explanation for why they were not allowed to board their flight, but he believed it was “because of the attacks on America—they think every Muslim poses a threat.” According to news reports, the US Embassy in London has not issued any comments or clarifications as to why Mahmood and his family were not permitted to travel to the US to visit Disneyland or regarding any increased travel security restrictions.

British Imam Ajmal Masroor Denied Entry

Ajmal Masroor, a British imam and broadcaster, reports he was also prevented from traveling to the US for business, despite having traveled to the US multiple times already this year. While Masroor was originally denied an ESTA, or Electronic System for Travel Authorization, after US Embassy staff contacted him to apply, he had been granted a business and tourism B1/B2 visa, which he said he used to travel to the US.

“In my mind, the refusal and revoking of my visa was calculated. For me it’s very callous,” he told the Guardian. In response, the US Embassy in London said: “The embassy is aware of this matter. We are in contact with the individual and therefore have no further public comment at this time.” Masroor believes US officials are singling out Muslims. "This is absolutely discrimination. It is not acceptable and playing into the hands of the terrorists," he said. Masroor also said he had heard of twenty similar cases of fellow Muslims being denied entry to the US, and David Cameron has been informed of additional cases as well.

In addition, Indian students have been denied entry to the US. In two separate cases, twenty Indian students with valid student visas for colleges in California were denied entry in Chicago and returned to India, and nineteen students were barred from boarding an Air India plane headed to San Francisco for the same schools.

It’s not only travelers to the US being excluded entrance, but Australia has also faced criticism for denying entry to certain individuals, including Zahra Ramadani, a Syrian-born British national whose visa was issued and revoked without explanation right before she was scheduled to fly to Sydney, and a Pakistani family who were trying to visit their terminally ill son who was unable to travel out of Australia.

Those who are planning a visit to the US should be aware of the proper ESTA and visa procedures and requirements, and also their rights if denied entry.