Flight to Nowhere - For Iraqis, a visit to Jordan is a travel nightmare

OpinionJournal.com ^ | August 2, 2007 | OMAR FADHIL

[gpapa]

BAGHDAD--Catching any flight from Baghdad International Airport is an extraordinary experience in and of itself, but when the destination of your flight is Amman, Jordan, it reaches a whole different level.

I made this particular trip several times in the last three years, but my last journey was by far the worst.

I was used to the mild discrimination the Jordanians have been practicing against Iraqis at the airport in Amman in recent years. Passengers on a flight coming from any airport in Iraq do not exit from an ordinary gate like other passengers. Instead we are taken by bus from the plane parked hundreds of meters from the terminal under the watch of guards armed with automatic guns. Then we pass through extra security X-ray, metal detection and a body search--before they get to the passport counters, even though all of us had passed through the strictest airport security system on earth before getting on board.

That's OK, and we got used to it.

[VOA]

Flight to Nowhere - For Iraqis, a visit to Jordan is a travel nightmare

This wussy whiner obviously has never been held hostage for an
hour or more inside an airliner sitting on the ramp/staging area
of an American airport.

As part of regular practice in American air-travel.

[JasonC]

Something like 30% of the population of Iraq has fled the country in the current war.

Almost all of them are Sunnis, and their number one destination is Jordan.

I'd be twitchy as all get out if a million Baathist exiles showed up on our door and expected to just hang out for years, plotting and scheming the while...

[JasonC]

Well OK, not "almost all of them", just more than from the other major demographics. (Or there wouldn't be any Sunnis left in Iraq).

[gpapa]

I suggest you vist Omars’s blog, Iraq the Model. A wussy whiner he ain’t. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

[VOA]

I suggest you vist Omars’s blog, Iraq the Model. A wussy whiner he ain’t.
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

OK, fair enough.
I was "shooting from the hip" in comparing the unpleasantries
of today's US air-travel to Omar's complaints.

[American in Israel]

Trust me, the conditions in Jordan are much worse.

[telebob]

Just wait until they get Amtrak...

[calex59]

I suggest you vist Omars’s blog, Iraq the Model. A wussy whiner he ain’t. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

I don't care what his blog says, he is a whiner and VOA was right. Why doesn't he go to Saudi as a Christian and see what real discrimination is all about? If Iraqis are mistreated when going to Jordan, who gives a crap, I certainly don't. Maybe he should try taking it up with Jordan, instead of "whining" about it on his blog.

[CinnamonBear]

Travel in and out of Jordan is a nightmare for everyone. When you arrive at the airport for a departing flight, you have to stay in the entry hall until two hours before your flight is scheduled - no immediate check-in and no going to the gate area right away. Once you clear the security into the gate area, you can’t leave the area again - even to go to the restroom. And of course, all along the process you have to deal with a bunch of arabs who absolutely, positively do not understand the concept of standing in line and waiting their turn.