On 25th May 2012 I experienced a really horrible time at the hands of immigration airport officers at Trivandrum. They insisted that my travel was 'suspicious' and they needed to verify my entry to India via Chennai (despite a valid tourist visa from the Indian embassy in London). To my knowledge, tourists can enter India at one destination (Chennai) and depart from another city (Trivandrum).
The Immigration officials interrogated me with personal questions like 'how is it that you are born in Colombo but is a citizen of the UK?', 'when did you leave Colombo?', 'why?' ‘Are you Tamil or Sinhalese?’.
They also asked me ‘Where was my first entry to India?’ and I had said Bangalore, however, it was Chennai (as per the immigration stamp on my passport). I had forgotten that I had hopped on to a domestic flight from Chennai to go to my first destination Bangalore before I travelled to Kochi and my last destination - Trivandrum.
They said my travel was ‘suspicious’ despite me producing boarding cards from all my destinations which mapped out my entire itinerary in India.
Then proceeded to x-ray and scan my passport looking at my passport as if it were a fake.
The whole situation was so stressful and I was afraid that they would take my passport, I was running behind then as they exchanged my passport from one officer to another shaking their heads, and one man also paced back and forth as if I were a criminal.
The Qatar airways staff tried to negotiate me to get on the flight and the immigration officials insisted that I would have to miss my flight until their immigration officer arrived at 11am to verify my stamps and travel. My flight was at 5.30am.
In the meantime, I was in contact with my travelling partner and she had contacted the British embassy who advised that sometimes the verification process can take a few days. And they cannot intervene at that point.
The immigration officials had said to Qatar staff that if I go from Chennai it shouldn’t be a problem - if I was telling the truth and I had in-fact landed in Chennai.
The Qatar airways staff advised then - if I can that’s probably what I should do - and I should be able to change my flight on Qatar. I asked Qatar if they can change the flight then and there, they said no and they can provide me with the reservation number for me to call at 8.30am when they opened.
So, my boarding card was stamped ‘cancelled’ which they kept. The Qatar staff had taken my luggage out of the plane and was waiting for me near one of their offices in the airport.
When I called Qatar at 8.30am the lady said that they can’t change my flight even if I paid the extra as I was on a special fare. And I had to book a new flight. I had then also contacted the British embassy and they advised that if I can go from Chennai it’s probably what I should do given the discomfort and stressful situation I was in.
I didn’t have enough money on me to book my onward journey from Chennai to London. I had to call my sister in Sri Lanka who had to go to a travel agent and book my flight on British Airways (which I insisted given the unhelpful nature of Qatar!). I had to book another domestic flight from Trivandrum to Chennai, leave the Trivandrum airport in the early hours with my luggage to the domestic terminal wait five hours before my flight to Chennai.
I have never had problems visiting India before. I had a valid India holiday visa from the Indian embassy here in London. Clearly there are no rules saying that if a person enters India in one city they should leave from that city itself.
The Trivandrum Immigration officials were unprofessional, unaware, rude and should not be representing India to tourists, and should most certainly not be manning your borders.
It was a horrendous experience and I will ensure I tell my story to anyone who plans a holiday to Trivandrum
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