Human trafficking has become a growing concern for airlines, which is why they’ve been increasing their trainings for their employees on ways to spot it. However, for one Delta passenger, she claims she was mistaken as a victim for human trafficking, which she believes was caused by being racially profiled by the flight crew, when in fact returning back to Atlanta from Cancun.
Per Fox News,
Stephanie Ung, 26, told WXIA that she and a friend had just returned from a trip to Cancun, Mexico, when they were stopped by Customs and Border Protection at the Atlanta airport and questioned for over an hour — which was just long enough for Ung to miss Thanksgiving dinner with her family.
According to WXIA, Ung was never told why she was being questioned, though she believes that she and her friend were racially profiled and subsequently suspected of being the victims of a trafficking operation.
“I know human trafficking is huge within the Asian community, right, and that’s the only reason why I could see [them] stopping me. That and the fact that I was in a dress,†she told WXIA.
Ung wasn’t entirely wrong in her assumption, although Delta claims the incident had nothing to do with her ethnicity or dress. In a statement released by the airline, Delta claims that another passenger alerted the crew to a passport issue concerning the two women, which led them to believe a “human trafficking event†might be taking place.
They always say, “if you see something, say something”. Yet when anyone actually says something, they’re called racists or Islamophobes or whatever. It’s a lose-lose situation.