The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is cooperating with US government agencies to monitor racial profiling of Arabs and Arab Americans at airports.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) says it has consistently monitored and denounced such profiling since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandated the practice in 1996.
The ADC has repeatedly submitted the overwhelming evidence of the discriminatory nature of profiling to the government, particularly the departments of Transportation and Justice.
As a result, says a press release by the group sent to Albawaba.com, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has set aside $1.5 million for a survey to determine to what extent Arab-Americans are being disproportionately singled out at airports.
For the past year, the ADC has been working with the DOT to design and implement this study. The department is now in the final stages of the study and has begun a three-week survey at Detroit Metro International Airport to determine whether Arab-Americans and other minority groups are singled out for additional searches of their baggage, according to the statemnet.
The study will survey approximately three international flights between Detroit and Amsterdam each day. An estimated seven or eight domestic flights will be surveyed between Detroit and Los Angeles International Airport and Detroit and New York Laguardia Airport. The surveys will be distributed at the gate areas and a letter explaining the purpose of the study will be attached.
An article in the Detroit News, US Looks for Profiling at Metro, Feds to Amass Security Data from Northwest to Explore Complaints from Arab-Americans, quotes US Transportation Secretary Norman Maneta as saying that "Safety is the Department of Transportation's highest priority, and routine security measures are necessary to protect the flying public against possible terrorist attacks. But we must also protect the civil rights of airline passengers.”
He continued: "While the security procedures are not based on the race, ethnicity, religion or gender of passengers, we also want to assure that in practice, the system does not disproportionately select members of any particular minority group."
The article also quotes ADC Michigan Regional Director Imad Hamad as saying that “Airline profiling continues to be a challenge for the Arab-American community, we have been witnessing a lot of complaints, and it has been alarming."
In the press release, the ADC urges all those traveling from Detroit within the coming three weeks to cooperate with the FAA and the DOT and fill out the questionnaires and surveys for the study. Cooperation from the Arab-American community and minorities is vital for the study’s success, the ADC said – Albawaba.com
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