Police deny the increased number of searches and questions at airports are specifically targeted at passengers flying to Turkey
Passengers have claimed Turkey-bound passengers are being specifically targeted
Police have rejected claims that passengers flying to Turkey are specifically targeted with bag searches and questions about the amount of money they have.
Many people from the Turkish-speaking community who have travelled to Turkey this summer have said security measures at London’s airports were tighter than usual – and that many appeared to exclusively target them.
“I arrived at Stansted Airport for a flight to Istanbul and there was police speaking to every passenger in the check-in,” one male passenger, who did not wish to be named, told Londra Gazete.
“When the officer reached me, he asked me where I was going. I told him I was flying to Istanbul and then Adana. He asked me if I was carrying any money and I said, ‘yes. I have about £4000 on me’.
The officer then asked whether the passenger was planning to take the cash to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed by the UK as a terrorist organisation but is known to have been fighting extremist Islamic State forces alongside the Peshmerga in Northern Iraq.
The Stansted Airport passenger, who is a British citizen, continued: “I told him ‘no’, because the money was for my family in Adana, but he asked me for a bank statement to prove where the money came from. I didn’t have one.”
“I must have convinced [the officer] but as he left he said, ‘If I caught you lying I could have confiscated that money and it would have taken you months to get it back’.”
Other passengers travelling to Turkish destinations from Luton and Heathrow have reported similarly high levels of police scrutiny before their flights.
Passengers travelling to non-EU countries from the UK are only required to declare cash when they are carrying more than 10,000 euros (£7,960).
Essex Police superintendent Glenn Maleary, who oversees the police operation at Stansted Airport, told Londra Gazete that airport security was of “paramount importance”.
He continued: “To help achieve this, Essex Police conducts general patrols at Stansted Airport working with other airport agencies. We make use of a range of tactics to examine what is held by passengers and in luggage on flights to all destinations.”
NO POLICE TARGETING
But in a joint statement Essex Police and Bedfordshire Police, which is responsible for security at Luton Airport, said they did not target any specific destination or group.
A spokesman said: “Police at eastern region airports currently operate a policy where airline passengers are stopped on an intelligence-led basis.
“As such, we do not target any specific group of passengers, airlines or routes.
“This allows us to maintain the on-going safety of all passengers using UK ports and airports in the East.”
The Metropolitan Police, which stations officers at Heathrow Airport, was unable to respond to Londra Gazete’s request for comment before the newspaper went to print on Wednesday evening.
