Airport, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Law and Regulations, Legislation

The Latvian daily Neatkariga Rita Avize reported earlier today that the UAE had handed a note to the Latvian Foreign Ministry over an unacceptable treatment of UAE Ambassador to Latvia Hanan Khalfan Obaid Ali Al Madhani at Riga International Airport whose staff had allegedly shown disrespect of Muslim traditions and the ambassador's diplomatic immunity.

When the UAE ambassador arrived in Latvia, the airport's security staff told her to take off her traditional Muslim garment, including hijab. The diplomat said she would do this only in the presence of a woman security officer and in a private room, but the airport's employees refused to accept her terms, which led to an insulting exchange of words, the newspaper wrote.

At a news conference on Friday afternoon, the deputy head of the airport's Security Department, Inta Smildzina, said that the airport respected the passengers' rights to wear religious clothing.

She claimed that the ambassador had not been told to remove the headdress or any other element of the traditional Muslim clothing. The UAE ambassador was only requested to take off her coat, and she was searched by hand in accordance with the EU and the Riga airport's security procedure. The hand search was performed by a woman security officer.

The airport's representative also claimed that the ambassador had not asked to be searched in a private room. There are such facilities in the Riga airport, Smildzina said, referring to the earlier comments by the Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry's press secretary Raimonds Jansons said that all travelers had to undergo the security check at the airport regardless of the type of travel documents they were holding but it was inadmissible that the airport lacked the facilities to conduct the security checks in privacy. The Foreign Ministry has reported the incident to the Transport Ministry and expects it to solve the problem with the lack of private search rooms, Jansons said.

Liene Uzule, a spokeswoman for Latvian Transport Minister Uldis Augulis, said that the minister had demanded and received from the airport explanations about the incident and had also instructed the airport to communicate its explanations to the public.

Hanan Khalfan Obaid Ali Al Madhani is the first resident UAE Ambassador to Latvia and was posted here only recently.