No Longer a Stroll Through Passport Control

By Mazin Almusharaf – Montreal Sunday, July 23, 2006


Traveling used to be fun. It is now becoming a tale of hardship, occasional discrimination, and unending surprise. Bombs in the transportation services of Mumbai, Madrid, London and the recent scare in Manhattan have ensured that a significant change in carefree travel has occurred and another chapter begun, so to speak.

What used to be merely a stroll through passport control for Canadian citizens is no longer a simple check-in procedure but can develop into an interrogation process, a bombardment of questions regarding one’s country of origin, immigration procedures, and personal opinion on matters deemed essential to national security.

Immigration to Canada has long been a prized goal, a guarantee that one’s nationality shall no longer be a factor in causing hardship at the borders of any given country. Canadians are welcomed with open arms in most regions of the world and do not require visas, a welcome reality for immigrants who may have been denied access to any number of countries based solely on their nationality.

However, dual nationality has never been under so much scrutiny as the present day, one in which deportations occur and security certificates exist, evacuations are under way and stranded citizens persist, all shedding light on the changing nature of travel.

Canada is recognized as a peace-loving, immigrant-friendly nation where the rule of law prevails and where citizens of third world countries, especially war-torn regions like Lebanon from 1975 to 1990 as well as today, have always believed that a change in passports will result in significant changes to the treatment of incoming passengers who, more often than not, are subject to intrusive searches and possible deportation.

Holders of Syrian, Sudanese, Iranian, Palestinian, or even Saudi Arabian travel documents are singled out in US airports, often being handed a large red, orange, or yellow envelope and directed to a waiting room. The official terms are red flag, orange flag, or yellow flag - depending on the degree of suspicion.

Amidst growing tensions between Ottawa and Washington in regards to a new mandatory ID that Canadians may need to enter the US in the future, and an evacuation fiasco in Lebanon that finds foreigners of all kinds struggling to leave that country, one’s passport is more important than ever.

Ships have been sent out to ensure the safe return of Canadian, British, American and French passport holders who have found themselves in the cross-fire of the most recent Israeli-Arab drama, many of whom are dual citizens of Lebanese or Arabic origin.

Enter 23 year old Ali Kilani, a Syrian born Canadian resident whose family emigrated to Canada in 2002 and a student at McGill University in Montreal. Mr. Kilani left Canada on March 18^th, 2004 en route to a vacation in the Dominican Republic with his American girlfriend who lives in Washington D.C.

His travel documents consisted of a valid 10 year US visa, which he received from the American consulate in Montreal, his Syrian passport and a Canadian Permanent Resident Card. The couple met in New York, decided to spend a night in Manhattan and boarded a flight to the Dominican Republic the next evening.

Little did they know that due to recent regulations, part of an overhaul in response to September 11^th, visitors must sign out with the Immigration and Naturalization Service before leaving the United States. Nor was Mr. Kilani aware that foreign nationals are now required to change their flight plans to encompass an airport that holds an INS office, which does not maintain one in every American airport. In fact, no one mentioned any of this to him.

An educated young man, fluent in both English and French, Mr. Kilani is hardly an aggressive figure; clean shaven and well spoken, he would appear to be just another tourist.

He does, however, have a small, almost nondescript tattoo below his right ear that spells “Allah” in traditional Arabic calligraphy. Another tattoo on the four fingers of his right hand spell “loco”, Spanish for crazy. This was enough to warrant an extended interrogation at the hands of US officials.

The trip to the Dominican Republic proved uneventful; the couple arrived at their holiday destination and spent a full week enjoying the sun, seemingly a world away from the ice cold of a Canadian winter. Their return trip found them at Miami International Airport, where they were promptly stopped by US Customs officials and told to wait, in separate rooms, even as their planes departed without them.

It would be a tiring six hour wait, an almost two hour interrogation and search, and a degrading experience to say the least.

Mr. Kilani was taken into a room in Miami International Airport where he was interviewed by an officer of the INS, a man of Saudi Arabian origin who Mr. Kilani describes as friendly and gentle and who spoke to him in fluent Arabic. He was asked basic questions on his immigration, on his destination, his studies, his relationship with his girlfriend and other mundane questions, the kind one expects from a bored police officer at a traffic checkpoint.

Then came the real juicy stuff: Have you ever been to Saudi Arabia? Asks the interrogator, to which Mr. Kilani, whose passport is in the hands of the US official, calmly answers No.

Have you ever been to Afghanistan? To which the Canadian gives the same answer, wondering at the intentions behind two seemingly unrelated questions. Finally, after being asked to describe his travel experiences, which included Lebanon, Thailand, England and Cyprus, the most astounding question of all: Can you please share your thoughts with us on Jihad?

Mr. Kilani was understandably surprised. What do Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan have to do with him? He later wondered what would have changed had he answered yes to both questions, not fully understanding why a trip to Saudi Arabia - which is the custodian of Islam’s holiest site Mecca and a destination for billions of Muslims worldwide - may have changed his position with the US authorities. Afghanistan is another story altogether, but Saudi Arabia is supposedly an ally.

Would more questions have followed? Would a trip to Saudi Arabia have placed him squarely in the cross-hairs of the American government?

By definition Jihad is a struggle within, the killing of innocent people – that is not Jihad, or even a part of Islam was his answer, although he describes a moment of confusion at having to explain his innermost beliefs to a stranger with a notepad.

On 24^th March 2004, Mr. Ali Kilani was deported from the United States, his ten-year visa revoked, and his girlfriend’s luggage not allowed onto her plane to Washington D.C. Mr. Kilani was forced to take her suitcases with him to Montreal, as if they were tainted by his very presence, and then FedEx them back to her in the following days.

Today, thousands of Lebanese Canadians stand on the docks of Beirut with passports in hand, hoping for a swift departure from their country of origin to the safe haven which is Canada. Without their passports, they would not be considered Canadian and thus neither the responsibility of the Harper government nor worthy of being saved, a difficult truth to swallow.

Since his 2004 experience in Miami, Mr. Kilani has received his Canadian passport and become a citizen rather than a Permenant Resident. Regardless, he says that he will not return to the United States as what used to be a stroll through passport control for all Canadians may well have become a rather more complicated issue “where our passports don’t protect us like we thought”, in his own words.