The complaint filed by five individuals against Aeroflot alleges that they were subject to a discriminatory treatment when they were flying from New Delhi to New York via Moscow
A complaint against a Russian airline has been registered with the Department of Transportation under the Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings in the US alleging discrimination on the basis of race.
The complaint filed by five individuals against Aeroflot alleges that they were subject to a discriminatory treatment when they were flying from New Delhi to New York via Moscow.
“Aeroflot staff steadfastly refused to allow American customers who were or who were perceived to be of South Asian descent to return to the United States, “deporting” them instead to India — all while providing customers on the same flight who were or who were perceived to be White Americans with accommodations and connecting flights to America,” the complaint reads.
In January this year, the complainants boarded an Aeroflot flight at the New Delhi airport to New York via a connecting flight from Moscow. However, at the Moscow airport, they learnt that their connecting flight to JFK airport in New York has been cancelled owing to bad weather conditions.
The complaints allege that Aeroflot employees there said that there were no seats available in either the later flights or flights of their partner airlines. The passengers were also denied accommodation, the complaint alleges.
“An Aeroflot representative, identified by his name tag as “Mikhail,” then informed the South Asian Travelers that Aeroflot would not be issuing them transit visas, and as a result, they could not stay in Moscow for more than 24-hours due to Russian regulations. As such, Mikhail informed them, their only choice would be to “go back to India” on a later flight or be forcibly “deported” to India by Russian officials,” the complaint further reads.
Despite their repetitive insistence that they could not be deported to India because they were US citizens, the airline staff did not budge.
All this while other co-passengers who were of non-South Asian descent were provided seats in the other connecting flights.
A call to the US Embassy in Russia also did not provide complainants with any relief. In the end, they had to return to India.
Four of them finally bought another ticket at their own expense as the next Aeroflot flight to the US was not before the next week and one person, Anshul Agrawal boarded the flight six days later.
“Because of the lies and racism faced by me, I have lost a week of work (I will not be allowed to vacation this year) and faced tremendous mental stress. Aeroflot has left me scarred. I have videos and testimonials from passengers to prove these incidents,” Agrawal wrote in a Facebook post.
The complaint has been filed by Muslim Advocates and Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC on the behalf of Marc Fernandes, Shahana Islam, Sabiha Islam, Bakiul Islam, and Anshul Agrawal.
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