Summary Actor/Comedian Eric Andre claims that the team at Melbourne Airport customs racially profiled him, calling out the incident on social media. The incident reportedly took place in Terminal 2 of Melbourne Airport and the Actor/Comedian was flying with Qantas. Data shows that in the US alone, there has been a 26% year-on-year increase in passenger discrimination complaints.
American Actor/Comedian Eric Andre has taken to social media about his experience at Melbourne Airport and called out the customs team for alleged racial profiling of the actor. The incident appeared to have occurred after the second of his third travel leg when the customs officer pulled Andre aside to the "dog-sniffing lane", and the actor states that it is not the first time he has experienced racial profiling at the airport. The incident Actor/Comedian Eric Andre has claimed in an Instagram post that he was racially profiled at Melbourne Airport (MEL) when the customs team had the actor pass through a special line where passengers were being sniffed by dogs.
According to the actor, this is not the first time he has been racially profiled at the airport. The actor arrived in MEL from Los Angeles and was connecting onwards to Brisbane, and this incident reportedly took place in Terminal 2 of the Melbourne airport and the actor in his post also calls out the Australian carrier, Qantas , which suggests that is the airline he was flying with. The Melbourne Airport's social media team has responded to the actor in his post with the following comment: "Hi Eric, Melbourne Airport does not tolerate racism in any form.
We are following up your complaint with the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) who are in charge of processing all international arrivals at Melbourne Airport and other Australian international gateways. Melbourne Airport is proudly the gateway to one of the most multicultural cities in the world. We welcome ALL passengers to Melbourne, and we expect everyone to be treated equally.
Kind regards, The Melbourne Airport team" Not just Australia Unfortunately, such incidents and reports are not exclusive to the Australasia region but have been increasing in other parts of the world, such as the United States, wherein reports from the US Department of Transportation (DoT) have seen a 26% year-on-year rise in passenger discrimination incidents. This increase can be partly attributed to the record-high number of air travel submissions in 2023. Data from the DoT shows that a staggering 223 complaints were raised regarding discrimination in 2023, compared to 176 in 2022.
Several such incidents were highlighted because of the high-profile nature of the incidents, wherein carriers such as American Airlines and Southwest Airlines made headlines. Not the only celebrity this week Andre is not the only celebrity to have said they had a run-in with airport ground staff in the past week, as American music artist Bebe Rexha faced an issue at Munich Airport (MUC). The artist reported that a male staff member working for Lufthansa tried to prevent her from boarding her flight and "mentally abused" the singer for speaking to the staff in Albanian.
The singer claimed that an employee attempted to stop her from flying. It is not clear if any further developments occurred in this instance, but reports suggest that the airline did contact the artist upon learning of this incident. While it is important that passengers do not be unruly and create trouble with airport and airline staff members (especially cabin crew members), it is also important that the staff members maintain the highest standards of professionalism known within the aviation industry when interacting with passengers.
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