Issue No. 603
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12 - 18 September 2002 Issue No. 603 Heritage |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Western walls?
Tighter security checks, visa complications and fears of discrimination are scaring many Arabs away from heading west. Gihan Shahine examines the impact of the 11 September attacks on Middle Eastern travel
"You have been randomly selected by the computer." That is exactly what many Arab tourists to the US are being told when called for closer scrutiny at US airports.
"It's ridiculous," snapped Osama Abdel-Tawab, an engineer. Abdel-Tawab visited the US in June to provide a technical training programme organised by the air-conditioning firm for which he works. "The so-called 'random selection' flagged me for each of the eight domestic flights I made during my three-week stay in the US. The same has happened to other Arab passengers. How random is that?"
The politeness of the security personnel did little to dispel Abdel-Tawab's feelings of frustration and humiliation. "I understand the US's fears, but still, the checks were clearly discriminatory against Arabs," Abdel-Tawab added. "My Irish travel companion wasn't exposed to such tight security checks." It took Abdel-Tawab three months and a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) screening to obtain a US visa.
Ahmed (name changed upon request), however, was among the many non-immigrant visa applicants who were turned down at the US consulate in Cairo "for no obvious reason". "The rejection was immediate," a dismayed 36-year-old Ahmed recounts. Letters of recommendation from Ahmed's American friends didn't help either. "They probably thought I might not come back, but I have a wife, kids, a job and a bank account here. I would never go through such humiliation again."
In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, US visa regulations and security checks have tightened up for travellers from the Middle East. The US State Department has also chosen the first anniversary of the attacks to mark the launch of the first phase of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) at all ports of entry to the US. US Attorney General, John Ashcroft, explained that NSEERS "will substantially expand America's scrutiny of those foreign visitors who present an elevated national security risk" and will provide "a vital line of defence in the war against terrorism".
Under NSEERS, "higher-risk visiting aliens" will be subject to fingerprinting at ports and will be asked to periodically confirm where they live, what they do and when they will leave the country. Their prints will be matched against a database of known criminals and terrorists. These 'aliens' will include nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria, in addition to citizens of other states that US authorities feel "present an elevated national security risk".
The US State Department recently announced that new security concerns arising since the attacks will slow visa processing "in some cases", advising applicants to factor in extra time before their planned travel date.
Before the 11 September attacks, a US non-immigrant visa was one of the world's easiest to obtain. Procedures rarely took longer than a day or two. Now applicants have to show up for a personal interview and wait for a security screening, which may take weeks, or even months. The US State Department has cited the security of the US and those inside its borders, including visitors, as the reason for the new measures. Although legitimate, the new US procedures have been widely criticised as "discriminatory against the Arab and Muslim communities".
"They reflect a status of domestic paranoia and mistrust," Mustafa El-Fiqi, head of the Egyptian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "I hope the world will soon realise that Bin Laden does not represent Arabs and that Muslims are not the Taliban. It is unfair to generalise," he added.
On an optimistic note, Lara Drake, head of the Washington-based Strategic Centre for the Middle East, views the new regulations as helpful to Arab interests. "They will help stop the 'brain-drain' out of Arab countries to the US," she told the Weekly. "Tourists from the Middle East should choose Arab destinations over Western ones to remain better connected with one another's concerns and issues, hence preserving a sense of Arab unity, solidarity and a common future."
Conversely, El-Fiqi believes the new regulations "will negatively affect Arab interests in the long run and adversely affect the US's image as a free country".
"I personally know of many cases where Egyptian students have had to miss out on classes in the US because of visa procedures," El-Fiqi said.
Nelly El-Zayat, of the non-profit organisation, America-Middle East Education and Training Services (AMIDEAST), has a long list of these cases. Many Egyptian students, she said, have also been scared of applying for scholarships to the US until "very recently when business gradually started to pick up". "US universities have been showing a keen interest in students from the region, in the aftermath of 11 September, probably stemming from a desire to understand the Arab mentality, but visa regulations are not supportive," El-Zayat added.
Philip Frayne, at the US Embassy in Cairo, explained that the enormous backlog in visa processing stems from inadequate staff levels to handle the new security requirements. However, the rejection of visa applications is dealt with on a "case by case basis", he said. "But generally it is up to the applicant to convince the visa interviewer that he or she has grounds for return," he added.
Frayne also stated that the new visa regulations are aimed at addressing the vulnerabilities of the US immigration system "which became starkly clear on 11 September. Many people would get a visa for one reason and illegally overstay it. We have to be vigilant about illegal immigration," he added.
Similar reasons have probably prompted tighter visa regulations for Middle East travelers in Europe. "Getting a visa to Europe is becoming increasingly complicated, a far cry from how it was before," complained Ahmed No'man, a 31-year-old businessman returning from Holland. "On previous visits to Holland, I was never asked so many questions or treated so inhospitably."
Similar complaints were reported over visa regulations for the United Kingdom. The Alexandria students, who needed urgent eye surgery in the UK and were turned down, are a case in point. But officials at the UK embassy insist that "Arab visitors are treated the same as all other visa nationals" and that "95 per cent of applications in Cairo are now dealt with on the same day, many without interviewing." UK consulate officials added that "immigration rules have not changed since 11 September."
At any rate, many Arab tourists have been steering clear of the West, opting instead for Far Eastern or Arab countries. In Egypt, for example, Arab tourism has increased by 12.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of Arab visitors to the US and Europe has dropped by 50 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, over the last year, according to Arab League figures. According to the British tourism authority, the number of Saudi Arabian visitors this year dropped by 15 per cent compared with 2000. In 2000, Saudis were reported to have spent $14.4 billion on foreign travel.
Fears of harassment and long security checks are commonly-mentioned reasons for this decline. Indeed, there is a general feeling among Arabs that they shouldn't travel to the West because they are being humiliated there, according to Nourah Abdel-Aziz, a journalist for Arab News. "A large number of Muslims have been arrested and jailed for no apparent reason," she added.
"People are, of course, wary of how they will be received in the West and of the inconveniences they may be subjected to at airports," Elhami El-Zayat, chairman of the Egyptian Travel Agencies Association, explained.
Drake expects similar declines in Arab immigration to the US. "The US is increasingly seen as an inhospitable environment for people from the Middle East," Drake told the Weekly. "It will affect the Middle East positively, though, because more people will stay home and work for the betterment of their own countries," she added.
However, a recent study by the US Centre for Immigration Studies projects that more than a million new immigrants from the Middle East will arrive in the United States by 2010. Steven Camarota, the report's author, said that interest in immigrating to the US remains high throughout the Middle East, even in the aftermath of 11 September.
"In October 2001, the State Department received some 1.5 million applications from the region for what is called the visa lottery, which randomly awards 50,000 green cards globally," Camarota said. He estimates that another 10 per cent of Middle Eastern immigrants entered the US illegally, with many simply overstaying their visas.
While acknowledging the short-term benefits of examining Middle Eastern immigrants with greater scrutiny, Camarota warned against long-term discrimination.
"We must avoid calls to single out Middle Eastern immigration," Camarota said. "Reducing immigration may make sense for many reasons, but it should be applied fairly to all groups."
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