To be annoyed at this immigration official?

[pinkmagic1]

DH and me have just returned from a lovely and very rare child free couple of nights away!
On returning to the UK, we had to queue at passport control. In addition to the people manning the passport desks, there was also an immigration official standing at the back of the hall behind the desks.
We where pretty much towards the back of the queue. Everyone in this queue were European passport holders as people of non EU documents were asked to queue elsewhere. Despite this fact we stood and watch this immigration official (the one at the back of the hall) pick off every single non white person for extra questioning, once they had cleared the immigration desk. First a British Asian family, then a couple of Chinese origin, 2 black French girls, followed by my DH who is a British citizen with an Arab family background.
Now I understand the need for vigilance but all these individuals had already had their documents checked once at the desk and this women did not pick any white Europeans for questioning. I am really angry at her assumption that every non white face in that queue was 'dodgy'. AIBU?

Oh yes, I remember being "randomly selected for a spot on security check" 4 times in a single day, it was on the days after 911, though.

And also someone shouting at me "DON'T TOUCH THAT BOMB BABY" when H tried to pass jet lagged 14m DS to me when they started to search him.

You are not unreasonable, it's racism.

Definate racism

It is racism - and they are told to do it. Not really their fault, just following orders. I know that's no excuse though.

I think it is called profiling. It saves searching absolutely everyone.

I remember going through all this with a 12 week old baby. It is best just to go along with it. You can't win by protesting.

YANBU in this situation but...

I always get searched/my bags searched at airports/at the Eurostar terminal. I'm white British so I must simply look particularly dodgy!

DH is mixed white/Afro-Caribbean but his colouring and features make him look like he's from an Arab background. Funnily enough, the only time he got searched was when he tried to take a bottle of water through airport security, despite me telling him he wouldn't be allowed it (of course that made him dig his heels in!).

It's unpleasant but I don't think it's racism. Do the security services take the time to pick out a politically correct selection of people or do they actually pick the people who fit the racial profile of people who could be a try to enter the country illegally or something more sinister?
It's horrid because the vast majority of all people are perfectly lovely, but I think we have to put political correctness and cries of "racism!" to one side and just let the security services do their job.

The problem is that the profiling is far too general, not black and white, but more like white and other colour variations. That is not profiling, that is racism.

Actually YABU as are most of the people on this thread so far (as well as not knowing what you are talking about!!). Am a regular who has name changed for this (obviously).

The person at the back of the hall picking off the "foreigners" for further questioning is not an Immigration Officer (or Border Force Officers as we are now known) but a Special Branch or Ports Anti Terrorism Police Officer. They are completely separate from the Border Agency so your assumption that a second "Immigration Official" is questioning the non-whites for no apparent reason is actually incorrect.

As I do not work for Special Branch, I wouldn't even like to tell you what they are looking for or how they profile but it's a bit insulting that someone who is doing a job trying to prevent terrorism (i.e stop your plane being blown up when you are on going on your holidays) is dismissed as being racist or is told to pick on black people when you have no evidence for this at all other than what you think you have observed whilst standing in a queue for a few minutes.

sorry chandra just to clarify was the baby yours? that some one would shout that to you about your baby! why?

and yes its definite racism. i'm sure there are white people out there that try to enter the country illegally too

And only certain flight are targetted and it will usually relate to some intelligence also.

I suppose the alternative would be to double check everyone, and then people would complain about having to wait around for hours.

YANBU. It's racist. Different matter if he'd queried every tenth traveller, say, or even covered the race agenda by stopping white people in equal numbers!

as an aside, can I recommend that you all register for the iris recognition thing they have at the airports now.

Rather than having to queue up for hours, you just walk up to a camera, look at it while it zaps takes a photo of your eyes, then a door opens and you are free to go, save for a smug glance over your shoulder to everyone still in the queue

You can register in the airside bit of the airport and it takes about 10 mins. It is my new favourite thing because I'm sure most people think I'm really special and VIP and not someone who has just got off an easyjet flight

As unpalatable as you might find it - it's a profile.

White Brits don't tend to blow up planes & tubes.

Immigration officer, the official, be they police or otherwise was not picking 'foreigners ' as you put it, merely non white Europeans.
I understand if the police have a tip off they have to search people matching that profile but this individual checked people of many different profiles. An Asian family with small children, 2 black girls in their early 20's, a middle aged couple of Chinese origin and a man of Arab origin in his 30's. These people don't all match a single profile, the only thing they all had in common was the fact they were non white

Yes, it was my baby.

I still think is racism. If it is just based in race, as Pinkmagic describes in her OP.

Maybe there had been a tip-off that a non-white person was coming through with a false passport/bomb in his underpants/2kg of H in his backpack today?

Just let people do their jobs without kneejerkery I say. (and I am always stopped) (due to over heavy bulgy suitcase that looks like I've got an entire football team smuggled inside such is its size)

what are they supposed to do?
because a much larger proportion of terrorists are young, non-white men, should they waste their time questioning lots of old, white, women just so the statistics add up?
police have been in trouble before for doing just that.

men are more likely to be doing illegal things, so more men get stopped than women.
is that sexist?

My DS often has his passport closely inspected a sborn abroad and his name is spelt with that countries spelling and has a double barrelled surname. Ist part is the foreign bit. His passprt is british and me and his dad not married (nor together).

I'm actually pleased they take note it shows they care who is passing thro.

Personally I would rather they actually just went for the people they thought were likely to be terrorists. As some people have said, little old white ladies don't tend to blow up planes so why waste time searching them if they have no grounds for suspicion just to appear 'non racist'. OP saw them do their job for a few minutes not a full day so doesn't really have any idea on the numbers invlved though.

They are trained for this job. I've been seached plenty of time even though I'm as pale as the moon and have a very very English name. I'm not bothered as I would rather they just did their jobs and stopped any potential threats.