Customs searches spark protest

Abraham Alawi is fed up with airport interrogation. Photo / Dean Purcell

A New Zealander of Middle East origin who thinks he is being unfairly targeted by Customs because of his surname is being urged to take his case to the Human Rights Commission.

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said his office would investigate complaints by Auckland IT systems engineer Abraham Alawi because people could not be discriminated against by their name or ethnicity.

Mr Alawi says he is humiliated and discriminated against every time he returns because his name is similar to that of another person, who is on a travel watchlist.

Officials, however, are not sure why Mr Alawi is being singled out.

The 26 year-old has no criminal history in New Zealand or in his home country of Bahrain.

He became a New Zealand citizen in March last year.

The searches have happened four times, most recently last week when he returned from a six-day trip to Melbourne.

Mr de Bres said each case had to be examined on its merits individually but it was discriminatory if someone was treated differently because of his name or ethnicity.

"I can understand the need for security but any kind of profiling by name or ethnicity will potentially lead to people being unfairly discriminated against."

He said there had to be a solution that stopped people like Mr Alawi having the same experience over and over again. "There must be a way to resolve it for him ... to put systems in place to prevent it from happening."

If it happened once it could be seen as a genuine mistake but not if it happened repeatedly. Mr de Bres said he had heard similar stories but could not say on what scale it was occurring.

Mr Alawi said that since going public he had heard similar stories from other people. He had lodged a complaint with Customs and would complain to the Human Rights Commission because it was "important the Government is transparent. We don't live in Iraq, we live in a democracy."

A spokeswoman for Customs Minister Maurice Williamson said he could not comment on the case as it was an operational matter.