Even in Africa, Black people suffer racial discrimination

I was harassed by Moroccan airport police for filming discrimination against Black Africans

In January, I was on my way back to the UK from Freetown, Sierra Leone in transit via Casablanca, Morocco. The majority of the passengers on the flight were Black Africans or of Black African origin. As we queued to go through Immigration at Mohammed V International Airport, an Asian man came forward and stood near me at the front of the queue. It was obvious he intended to jump the queue, so I told him in no uncertain terms that there was a queue. He said he’d been told to come to the front of the queue and stayed put; the person behind me let him in.

Shortly afterwards, a group comprising a white couple and three Asian men jumped the queue ahead to go through the baggage screening machines. Even if there was a valid reason for them needing to be ‘fast-tracked’, with no explanation for this it looked and felt awkward and wrong.

Human rights violation

At this point, I decided to film what was going on. A couple of minutes later a plain-clothes policeman came up to me and demanded my phone, with no explanation. He literally said: “Give me your phone”. Naturally I said “No!”. What followed was 10 minutes of me standing my ground and him and several of his colleagues harassing me, threatening that I wouldn’t be allowed to travel if I didn’t give them my phone.

Three Sierra Leonean gentlemen in the queue pitched in to help me and eventually, seeing the anger these policemen were hurling my way because I dared to stand up to them, my fellow travellers urged me to hand over my phone. I did so reluctantly… sometimes discretion is the better part of valour… at which point an airport official held my phone up to my face, used my Face ID to access my phone and permanently deleted the two short videos from my Photos app. It felt like a technology-enabled violation of my human rights!

Disgusting, disgraceful discrimination

I wouldn’t have published those videos on social media or anything like that – that’s not my modus operandi. I would probably just have shown them to family members and friends and told them how horrified I was that this kind of thing goes on, even on the continent of Africa. But I am sharing this sorry tale of maltreatment publicly on International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination because it’s a salutary reminder that even in Africa, Black people suffer racial discrimination. The actions of the Immigration Police at Mohammed V Airport show that they know how they treat Black people is wrong – but they don’t want the evidence to be shown to the world.

When it suits some Moroccans, like in the World Cup, they’re Africans – but some clearly think Black(er) Africans don’t deserve to be treated with respect. This discrimination is disgusting, disgraceful and must stop.

The 2023 theme of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination focuses on the urgency of combatting racism and racial discrimination, 75 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We must all speak out against all forms of injustice, including racial discrimination, whenever and however we can. The Moroccan airport police deleted my videos but they can’t silence me.