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November 17, 2008
Ken Boothe humiliated by random immigration scrutiny
It was unfortunately Ken Boothe’s turn to go through what UK immigration officials call the random spot check last week, much to his chagrin.
The veteran artist and his wife felt highly humiliated after being put through the mill at the United Kingdom’s Gatwick airport.
He told The Star that he needed to let people know about the extremely unfair experience that saw both him and his wife being subjected to an extensive and distressing process.
Boothe explained that upon arriving at the UK point of entry, instead of the customary initial questioning by immigration officers, that usually seeks the answer to queries like, “what is the purpose of your visit,” he was verbally accosted with a question that came as a shocking surprise. While inspecting Boothe’s passport the immigration officer’s first question was whether or not he was wanted by the police.
A seasoned traveler, the Jamaican icon, who has been thrilling audiences across the world for decades, set the officer straight as he has never been a wanted man.
Next the couple’s documents were taken away for further scrutiny and returned by a different officer who was female. The woman then gave Jamaica’s musical hero a thorough search of his luggage and pockets, before taking him to another area, to tell him he was now free to go.
The couple was released after two grueling and embarrassing hours of inspection in that airport; and Boothe said he felt so awful, it was as if he was being deported; and all eyes were on him and his wife as they went through the ordeal.
One immigration officer told Yardflex that random checks know no identifications and everyone can expect that it could happen to them sometime.
Yardflex was told that these checks can happen at different points in any airport, like at the security clearance stations where people are often pulled aside and given a full body rub down, asked to remove their shoes and even given a proper head massage as well.
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