Airports Call for Racial Profiling

(Germany) Proposed on Tuesday.

The incoming head of Germany’s main airport lobby group is demanding the nation’s transit authorities use racial profiling to weed out terrorists at security checks.

Christoph Blume, the head of Düsseldorf Airport, told daily Rheinische Post on Tuesday that air passengers should be divided into different risk categories, meaning they would be subject varying degrees of scrutiny by airport security.

“That way, the security system could become more effective to everyone’s benefit,” said Blume, who will take the helm of the ADV airport association next month.

He said profiling passengers according to characteristics such as race, religion and country of origin would allow German airports to avert a further tightening of security.

If security is improved, implementation of the plan is arguably logical. However, it remains a controversial idea.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has roundly slapped down a call by Germany’s airports for passengers to be profiled for security checks, warning such discrimination would contravene EU and German laws.

“Systematic differentiation according to homeland and origin carries the risk of stigmatisation,” Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, of the liberal Free Democratic Party, told daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday.

So, there you go. Idea snuffed on Wednesday. For now.