Wednesday April 5, 2023
By Irem Koca
Secretary general of human rights group was denied boarding for a flight to Mexico despite being eligible to enter the country.
OTTAWA—Amnesty International Canada’s general secretary accused Air Canada of racism after she was denied boarding for a flight to Mexico.
Ketty Nivyabandi, the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section, was denied permission to board a flight from Ottawa to Mexico City on Thursday, for not having a Mexican visa.
“This is an unacceptable discrimination by Air Canada. I was not only inconvenienced but deeply humiliated,” she said in a Twitter thread detailing what happened.
“I was the victim of racism, discrimination and sheer incompetence.”
Nivyabandi has Burundian nationality, is a permanent resident of Canada and holds a refugee passport, so she is eligible to enter Mexico without needing a visa, according to the Canadian government’s entry and exit requirements.
Nevertheless, she could not convince Air Canada officers at the Ottawa International Airport of that fact.
“I think the biggest story here is that (the airport’s) practice has been subject to interpretation by some agents,” she said in an interview. “Clearly, there’s a need for better training for all airline agents to learn about conventional travel documents.”
Nivyabandi said she was held at the counter for an hour while officers looked over her travel documents, only to be denied boarding without any further justification.
“Whatever tools Canada is using and maybe other airlines are using are not adequate and are not accurate so that’s the bigger issue. I’ve heard from many others who say they’ve experienced the same thing.”
Nivyabandi said the officers who did not let her board the plane were later excited to hear she was born in Belgium, thinking it would help their processing.
“One of the agents said, she was born in Belgium, I think she’s OK. So this means that you’ve got a certain set of countries that are subjected to this (implementation) that are over-scrutinized versus others. And that is that is how systemic racism manifests.”
Nivyabandi said she has travelled to Mexico from Canada before without any issues, and shared the screenshot of a letter from the Mexican embassy in Canada, which confirms she does not need a visa to enter the country.
“It’s outrageous and unacceptable,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, in a statement, asking the airline to publicly apologize to Nivyabandi and compensate for the harm caused.
“Air Canada staff at the Ottawa airport treated Ketty in a discriminatory and racist manner, humiliating her and preventing her from participating in an important human rights conference at her destination.”
Nivyabandi said that she was treated “radically different” after Air Canada’s management team stepped in.
“I want to underscore that this isn’t an individual case. I happen to have a particular profile. I was able to get great support after the outcry on social media and various letters sent to Air Canada. But the issue goes beyond. Had it been someone else would things resolve in the same way?”
The airline has since apologized to Nivyabandi and issued a new ticket to fly her to Mexico.
“We have apologized to Ms. Nivyabandi for her delayed travel, refunded her travel and facilitated her travel the next day,” the airline said Tuesday in a statement to the Star.
The airline said several of its agents worked hard to assist Nivyabandi by consulting Timatic, a technical system used by global airlines to obtain information on national governments’ entry requirements.
“These rules can be complex and may vary from country to country, particularly in instances where a customer is travelling on a less-commonly used type of document, such as in this instance, a refugee document,” read the statement. Air Canada said it notified the International Air Transport Association about the error in Timatic, and the IATA fixed it.
Nivyabandi, who was travelling to Mexico for a human rights conference, finally boarded a plane to that country, 24 hours later than her original boarding time.
“But I am thinking of those who don’t have the same job or access to social media. This should never happen again, to anyone!” she said.