We were on a long trip back to London from Male, and had a 5-hour layover in Dubai. I last flew Emirates about 10 years ago and as a young poor student didn't mind much, but now I am appalled by the airport. It is probably one of the worst in the developed world (and some emerging markets - eg Bangalore!!). This is my fourth time flying Emirates in my life, and all four times, I - a brown woman - have been "randomly selected" for extra security checks, at the GATE, after scanning the boarding pass. My white partner has never been subject to the same "courtesy" (I even have an Emirates Skywards membership and he doesn't). When I enquired why this was necessary as everyone there had passed through security, there was no response. I asked again, and the security guard called her superior to answer. He just said "random" and I queried it - every person of color on my flight was selected for the check (alongside a handful of white people, though the white woman behind me had a passport from South Africa, and another white-passing woman had a Turkish passport), but it was like a scene from segregation era - all the white people queued on one side, and all the brown, Black and Asians in a makeshift "pig pen search area" having all their belongings strewn in public and being searched like we were criminals. The "head" security officer was rude to me and just barked "random" again. I wish I took a video of the segregation scene, but I was too shocked to think at the time. The security guard even loosened my scarf to search me. STAY AWAY from this racist company. It was such an awful degrading experience, particularly so after a terrible experience at the airport. At 1am, the airport was FULL. Every toilet had a queue of at least 10 people, and some of the toilets only had two stalls - and because of the bidet, all toilets were disgustingly WET. In addition, there were also not enough seats for those waiting for flights, even in cafes. The outright racism was the cherry on top.
