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I have faced a disturbing situation when entering the territory of Morocco as a tourist. I am a French citizen, with obvious Middle-Eastern face features and name, and carrying a French passport.

The immigration border officer first thought I was a Morrocan citizen who was hiding a Moroccan citizenship (it seems to happen a lot) and asked for my Moroccan ID card, which i didn't have since i am not one of their citizens.

Then he asked for my "country of origin", stating that at least one my parents originated from the Middle East(which is true). He then wanted to know the nationality of my parents. I then answered the questions since I didn't want to have trouble with the local authorities. He then wrote the answers on his notebook. The same situation occured when leaving the country and happened with a number of other French citizens who I know.

I consider such questions very intrusive and not part of the officer's business.

How should one behave in this situation ? Is there an international convention on which I can rely in order to avoid such ethnic profiling ?

Jack Dero
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1 Answers1

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I'm afraid if you consider these questions too intrusive, you won't want to visit many countries, not just Morocco. Questions about ethnic origin are common. India, for example, wants to know about Pakistani ancestry, even if you were born somewhere else (e.g., USA). My mother was very offended when the Jordanian border guard flat-out asked her if she were Jewish, although she didn't seem to mind when the Israeli border guard asked her if she knew Hebrew. I was asked about Greek ancestry entering Cyprus (Lazarus is patron saint of Cyprus, but I have zero Greek ancestry.) Et cetera.

I suggest answering truthfully. And I can't see any countries agreeing to any sort of convention that would preclude these queries.

Most of these questions, perhaps all, wouldn't happen in a better world. But.

Andrew Lazarus
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