Travelling with Muhammad…

Transiting via Paris, on my way to Africa yesterday, I suddenly noticed the lock on my luggage was missing! I went into shock, not because there was anything valuable in there, it’s just that this had never happened to me before.

Looking through my bag, I didn’t notice anything missing, just all differently arranged to how I had it. It then occurred to me that security at Luton Airport may have had a good look through my bag? They probably didn’t want to take the chance with a brown-skinned man travelling [alone] on a flight full of ‘Europeans’ to Paris.

All the other coincidences that I hadn’t noticed at the time suddenly made more sense. At Luton Airport they swabbed my laptop (for drugs and/or explosive residues no doubt) and then put it through another machine. I couldn’t have been the only person with a laptop, but I didn’t see any other laptops given this treatment.

At Paris, I was the only person still waiting for my luggage – it arrived all by itself. Maybe I was the only passenger with hold luggage? No, that can’t be right, I did see people from my flight waiting in that area and collecting their baggage.

I tried going back to EasyJet, they said they’re not responsible for baggage handling, I tried Paris Customs, they can’t deal with it also. The airport itself – no luck either. They couldn’t even give me a replacement lock!

So bag opened, no notice to say it was opened by security, I was blaming the unhelpful French. But the French laid the blame squarely on the UK authorities. Was there anything in your bag for customs (we all know what she meant) the French lady asked? I thought about it, my mobile charger etc, but no, nothing to cause customs any concern except maybe one thing; the name Muhammad tagged to my luggage.