Custom Officers-Guards of the country are ambassadors also to project their country’s esteemed image

 photo credit: freelancer.com

2 June 2022

After exciting air travel, the first to confront in the new country is custom officer who decides your entry. Most custom officers are gentlemen and ladies doing their jobs sincerely and with patience and hard work. And over the years, they have improved a lot in terms of interacting with the visitors. But a lot needs to be done. Often, they or their Governments act like the bosses in the Bollywood films to decide what is right or wrong. And in these days of Covid-19 pandemic, they are the ones who decide as how to check the Covid carriers.

So, after some weeks of planning and preparation for travel to Egypt, we finally left for Cairo via Abu Dhabi in October 2021. The emigration was just fine, but a night flight meant remaining awake with little scope of refreshing sleep. On arrival at noon at Cairo airport, we were detained by the custom officials for Covid testing, as they collected our passports. At the same time, those joining our flight from Abu Dhabi were allowed free pass to collect their luggage. Most probably, these were Egyptians working in Abu Dhabi. Discriminatory treatment left a bad taste, as we were tired and wished to hit the bed as soon as possible in the hotel. Fortunately, the covid test which is based up on antigen presence, and is considered rapid, took 3 hr. We felt a sigh of relief as we had all cleared it or managed to clear it, as it looked suspicious since no receipts were given for USD 60 that each one of us shelled out.

Cowin Pass, supposedly one that the international community should have respect of, or our RT-PCR test prior to departure 72 hr before flight served limited purpose such as leaving the home country without being a Covid carrier, but did not instil confidence in the visiting country. On the contrary, Egyptian nationals, probably carrying vaccination certificates as well as negative RT-PCR tests prior to their boarding the plane at Abu Dhabi did not face the same indignation as they were either believed to be non-carrier or being citizens of that country, they were concessionaires for Covid rapid antigen test.

I am not sure if the reciprocal treatment is given to those who are not the Indian nationals and are visiting India. Only question that we were asked if we had cowin pass and RT-PCR test prior to departure by the Indian customs. I did not wait to see who were caught, but it appeared that we had a better system in place with proper facilities for sampling for those from other countries on the spot as well as online using the https://newdelhiairport.in at probably the cheapest rate (Rs 700/-eq. to less than USD 10) for even RT PCR testing in the world. RT PCR in Cairo while returning costs us a bomb, USD 110 each.

This reminds me of other instances of quirky behaviour of customs. Last time, during a visit to Bangkok in Thailand in 2019, while we stood long in a queue to get our visa stamped on arrival after completing formalities, some smart guys paid some 200 Baht each, Thai currency, to get out of airport. Again, there was no receipt for this payment. This shows how black money is generated at the entrance of the country.

My first brush with customs was in 1995 when I travelled first time by air abroad. It was at Heathrow airport, where I felt that brown people were ignored while custom officers smiled, or greeted with fake smiles. In Germany, the lady custom official to whom I had to inform of my home address was a bit curt, if not outright arrogant while commenting upon my stay there for six months. She was quite comfortable with her dog that too occupied the office.

But it is in US that I found a real arrogance of custom officer in 2007 when I had to remove all my clothes to show the customs that I was not carrying anything that might hurt his country.  I was on visit under the Indo-US funded Asian Biotechnology Support project which involved visit to my collaborator at Cornell University. I was too occupied to wear the clothes, to assess his reaction to my xyz. Thereafter, during all my subsequent visits, customs appeared to be more humane in their behaviour. Occasionally, I got the feeling that they eyed more people of colour than the whites with suspicion. So they checked my parathas-stuffed flat bread with drug detector and my hand luggage thoroughly when I left Memphis for home in another visit.

I often felt annoyed in the beginning with the restrictions on carrying water bottles. So, at New York customs, my water bottle was about to be thrown in the dust bin. I argued with the officer that he has examined my luggage and water bottle. If he feels anything suspicious about water, I will drink it in his presence. He asked me to go back behind the counter, drink water and empty the bottle, put it back along all luggage again for checking. Of course, I preferred losing bottle than bothering to check all stuff again just for the sake of retrieving the bottle. Most of us would like to save money by not buying water bottles, as potable water is available for travellers through spouts. A bottle of about 450 ml costs as much as USD 2-3 and even the young Americans were seen as carrying their own bottles to save some bills.

In most airports, water bottles-unopened or used ones are thrown in the dust bin by the custom checking-in staff. Do they throw away these bottles fearing that some will use them as cannons or do they believe that these contain poisons to contaminate inside of the airport? If water bottles are handy to be used as cannon, so other luggage pieces to carry chaos. I am not sure of their intentions. But at times, it is the same people who might be using unopened ones to help themselves. There is information available that they relish at least some exotic fruits like alphanso mangos, that are seized and meant to be thrown in the dust bin.

Food items are other things that custom officers apply different yardsticks to be allowed in. For e.g. in the US, customs do not mind allowing passengers to bring along Indian sweets especially dry ones. I was surprised to know that these officials are well versed with Hindi names of Indian sweets. But, they have reservations not to allow the ones like gulab jamun or rasgullas even if these are in sealed cans. I was relieved as I was carrying sweets like kaju katli, barfi etc. But why not gulab jamun or rasgullas if these are packed in cans? I did not have guts to argue with the lady officer.

Australian customs however did not allow kaju katli. I was very sad that a kg of best quality kaju katli of reputed company, packed beautifully and hygienically was thrown in the dust bin by the custom officer. I was told that dairy products are banned from imports in that country. I wonder as to how a kg of Indian sweets based upon dairy ingredients like khoya threatens their multi-billon dairy industry? Or small packs of sweets which will be consumed within few days will be harmful to their environment.

Talking of harm reminds me of unwanted plants and animals that have entered into the countries intentionally and unintentionally. And hence, countries are justified in preventing entry of live materials, without sanitary certificates or appropriate procedures of import. But if the countries have suffered through unintended live materials, they have gained too as accidental releases have enriched their biodiversity and food security in the past, writes Professor Scott Carroll of the University of California, Davis, USA in his paper.

Humans are the most important carriers of all things possible. And the custom officers need to respect the travellers as ambassadors of peace and prosperity rather than suspecting them.