London Mayor brands airport staff 'racist'

Ken Livingstone has launched a scathing attack on immigration staff at Heathrow Airport after accusing them of treating foreign travellers in a racist manner. The Mayor of London branded the treatment of travellers from China and India a disgrace. Union leaders said his comments were completely unacceptable and would be greeted with alarm by workers.
Mr Livingstone was addressing an economic conference discussing the need to embrace new business from abroad.
Mr Livingstone said: "Whenever I'm in India or China meeting business people or diplomats, again and again their complaint is that they have big business people coming through the airport being treated as though they are going to sneak off and do a bit of cockle picking or something."
He added: "We should stop treating them as though they're potentially all illegal immigrants."
Immigration staff at Heathrow work for the Home Office and the union that represents them says the mayor's comments will be viewed poorly by its members.
26/04/07 BBC News, UK

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Apr 2007, Foreign Apr 2007