Thread by @iyad_elbaghdadi

I'm at the airport in Berlin and I'm being denied boarding by @Ryanair because I'm a refugee. I'm heading to Dublin. The Irish government website says I can travel but @Ryanair says I can't. If you love me, make some noise.

https://twitter.com/3z0ooz/status/1115275381936939013

I'm waiting for a supervisor, who's obviously taking their time hoping I'll just leave or I'll miss the flight.

Please tag @Ryanair and tell them what you think.

I've been denied boarding. They're not allowing me to fly. Make some noise.

- Reasons given: None
- Presented printout of Irish government page saying I can travel, they "asked for the original" (of a website?)
- Asked to see supervisor, "our supervisor is busy".
- Asked for my customer rights, referred to the RyanAir website.

Curiously the supervisor remained busy until it was too late for me to catch the flight.

I'll find another way to Dublin, but @Ryanair is *not* off the hook and I won't drop this.

That said now I'm just thinking that I should have been working on the flight now (have quite a bit to do ahead of the meeting tomorrow) - now I'm going to be spending the entire day traveling instead.

Report this account: @bjarte111

For everyone concerned: Thank you. Yes, I once spent 26 days stranded in an airport after being expelled from my former country, the UAE. Yes, I'm nervous around airports. But if we're anything we're resilient. Dictators didn't break us, an airline certainly won't.

Just received a call from @Ryanair customer service offering apologies and saying they'll put me on the next flight + compensate me for denied boarding. And now I'm thinking about all the refugees who do NOT have 122k followers on Twitter and don't get such callbacks.

As for all of you - who created noise and for a couple hours were my voice - thank you all, much love.

There's a lot of bullshit out there and we refugees have to deal with a lot of shit. But there's also a lot of love and solidarity out there. Thank you all, my friends.

Don't forget the other refugees who aren't famous and don't have a lot of followers and don't speak English and don't have Twitter and they end up standing there feeling dehumanized and broken and unable to punch back. Be their voice too.

وأنت تعود إلى البيت، بيتك، فكر بغيرك، لا تنس شعب الخيام
وأنت تحرر نفسك بالإستعارات، فكر بغيرك، من فقدوا حقهم بالكلام
وأنت تفكر بالآخرين البعيدين، فكر بنفسك، قل: ليتني شمعة في الظلام

Had to end with this. Good day, everyone.

https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/1115952320246886400?s=19

So I just arrived in Dublin and this was the smoothest, quickest, friendliest passport control check ever. Dublin feels very welcoming.