Lufthansa barred greater than 120 Orthodox Jewish males from boarding their connecting flight in Might 2022
The US Division of Transportation (DOT) has introduced a $4 million penalty in opposition to German nationwide airline Lufthansa for allegedly discriminating in opposition to a bunch of Jewish passengers.
In keeping with a DOT assertion on Tuesday, the airline prohibited 128 Jewish passengers, most of them sporting conventional Orthodox Jewish clothes, from boarding their connecting flight in Germany in Might 2022.
DOT stated it had acquired over 40 discrimination complaints from Jewish passengers who had been ticketed to fly from John F. Kennedy Airport in NYC, with a cease in Frankfurt, Germany, and an final vacation spot of Budapest, Hungary.
The division’s investigation into the complaints concluded that Lufthansa prohibited the entire group of Jewish passengers from finishing their journey to Budapest on the idea of alleged misbehavior by just a few of them. In keeping with media reviews, some people had allegedly refused to adjust to the airline’s guidelines requiring them to put on face masks.
“Based mostly on the alleged misconduct of some passengers,” the division stated, Lufthansa workers “handled all of them as in the event that they had been a single group and denied them boarding,” regardless of most of the passengers not figuring out one another or touring collectively.
Native German media reported on the time that the airline’s workers excluded these passengers who had been recognizable as Jews as a result of they had been sporting cranium caps or had sidelocks. A video of the incident reportedly confirmed Lufthansa workers telling passengers that “everybody has to pay” for the errors of some.
In keeping with DOT, the wonderful issued to Lufthansa is the biggest ever the company has levied for “discrimination.”
“Nobody ought to face discrimination after they journey, and in the present day’s motion sends a transparent message to the airline business that we’re ready to analyze and take motion every time passengers’ civil rights are violated,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated.
Lufthansa stated in a press release on Tuesday that because the incident it had absolutely cooperated with the DOT because the latter performed its investigation.
The German service apologized for the incident on the time, saying it had “zero tolerance for racism, antisemitism and discrimination of any sort.” The corporate later stated it had reached a settlement with a lot of the excluded Jewish passengers.
You may share this story on social media:
Supply hyperlink
