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Crackdown on non-European accents

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Planning to visit London and do not speak propa'h English? Beware. You could be mistaken for an illegal immigrant! In a new twist to random immigration checks, people with "non-European'' accents or those who have difficulty speaking English are being reportedly stopped by officials and asked to show their travel documents. Apparently, passengers on the London Underground have become a particular target of a new stop-and-ask campaign quietly launched by the Home Office recently to check illegal immigration. "If you hear someone speaking a language that's not European we approach them and ask: do you mind if I ask you what nationality you are?' If they get upset or start acting suspiciously we ask the police to assist and demand identification,'' an official was quoted as saying. The move has been widely condemned as `racist' and the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has said that he wants the practice stopped immediately. "This looks like harassment of black people by the immigration service and I would like to see it completely stopped. The transport police are there to stop criminal and anti-social behaviour, not cooperate in harassment of black and Asian people by the immigration service,'' he said.

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