Principled stance of the Ombudsman for the Rights of National Minorities on the pre-boarding checking of international passengers at the airport

According to some media reports and complaints lodged with Elisabeth Sándor-Szalay, Ombudsman for the Rights of National Minorities, in the course of 2015 several Hungarian citizens and families of Roma nationality could not depart for Canada irrespective of the fact that they had valid travel documents and air tickets in their possession. They were prevented from departing before boarding the plane, usually in the following manner: in front of the check-in counters persons with unknown authorization picked out people from among the passengers waiting in the queue and, following a short conversation, refused to check them and their luggage in, effectively preventing them from boarding the plane.

Based on her investigation and the responses received from the organs and authorities concerned, Elisabeth Sándor-Szalay has identified several fundamental rights concerns as regards the aforementioned airport checking practice: it infringed upon the requirement of fair procedure, the right to legal remedy and failed to respect the human dignity of people wishing to exercise their right to free movement.  Furthermore, checking was conducted in a way that violated the requirement of equal treatment.

Although the flights mentioned in the complaints are not operational anymore, with a view to the significance of the practice identified as concern, the launching of direct flights to Canada in the summer of 2016, the wide range of people affected and the international aspects of the issue, the Ombudsman for the Rights of National Minorities has deemed necessary to issue a statement on her principled stance.

The most important element of the statement is as follows: at Liszt Ferenc International Airport pre-boarding checking of air passengers wishing to travel to Canada should be carried out by the organizations and persons concerned strictly in accordance with the relevant Hungarian and Canadian legal regulations, in a manner that would ensure the discrimination-free treatment of all passengers bound for Canada. In order to guarantee legal certainty, it is of paramount importance that the organization conducting such pre-boarding checking should proceed on the basis of a written protocol and in an identical way in each and every case. The organization conducting the pre-boarding checking is expected to provide the passengers in advance with information on the fact and the purpose of such checking. The organization conducting the checking of passengers should adopt positive measures to ensure that, in order to exclude the possibility of discrimination, pre-boarding checking of a passenger wishing to board any flight should comply with all procedural, safeguarding and formal requirements, including the provision of correct information on possible legal remedies.

As far as the protection of fundamental rights is concerned, the expected minimum requirement would be to ensure that the way pre-boarding checking is conducted would not be discriminating and degrading in nature or violating human dignity.