Dehumanized at Schiphol Airport: A Call for Equality and Dignity of All Migrants

By Muhammed Lamin Dibba, MINT 2nd Year

When I was leaving Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam in the Netherlands on the 30th of May 2023, I was departing for Geneva in Switzerland after I had been on holiday for a week. At Schiphol Airport, I was treated with unsettling discrimination, stigmatization, and dehumanization (perhaps because of the color of my skin and the Gambian passport I was holding) in the name of the securitization of a national border. 

Those individuals assumed to be white or possessing a European passport are not subjected to the same scrutiny as I was. I was demanded to hand over my passport while at customs or immigration and met with mistrust. I was requested to take off my shoes, and nothing was discovered even though I was searched through the machine. After that, I was forced to do another physical search, and the officer in question came dangerously close to me by putting his hands inside my pants, all in the name of searching me. I became enraged and asked why I was being subjected to this search rather than others. The response was to ensure that I did not cross the border with any substance considered abusive, such as cocaine or marijuana.

My backpack was opened directly in front of me a few minutes later, and every item was thoroughly examined. However, there was nothing discovered, despite the insane and terrible treatment I received, as well as the so-called search and evacuation operations. Even though I was bleeding from the inside out, I made it abundantly clear that I had never used or seen cocaine, smoked cigarettes, or used marijuana in my whole life. I asked once more why only a few Africans on board were subjected to such an unfair examination, but I did not receive a substantive response.

The drive for so-called safety overshadows the human tale lying behind migration, and this experience reflects the global discourse on the securitization of borders. By recognizing and treating all migrants equally, regardless of the passport they carry or their skin color, the West should adjust to and find a way to strike a balance between preserving human dignity and protecting national security.

E. Tendayi Achiume, in his book titled “Migration as Decolonization,” published in June 2019, highlights historical displacement, pointing out that over the period spanning from the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century, a minimum of 62 million Europeans moved to colonial territories all over the world, including Africa, with Gambia being a prominent destination. However, in stark contrast to the fatal consequences that international law imposes on a significant number of economic migrants from the Global South in the present day, these Europeans were the epitome of economic mobility or migration. 

Acuhibe argues that even people from the Global South, especially from Africa,  looking for legal authorization to visit the Global North, Europe in particular, are confronted with visa restrictions that must be clarified and prohibitively expensive. These restrictions do not apply to the international mobility of citizens from the so-called “First World”. For me, this type of treatment of African migrants in the West reflects a total disregard for Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Global Compact of Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration adopted in 2018. These provisions not only grant individuals the right to travel freely within their nation and choose where they want to live but also the right to travel abroad for various reasons, such as work, education, tourism, or family reunification.

Finally, despite the trauma faced by millions of African migrants in the West, my call is for global solidarity with all migrants discriminated against. Therefore, I urged the entire globe to show their support & solidarity with Africans, particularly those who are routinely subjected to bigotry and all forms of discrimination at airports in the West.