Brissie_lions From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 794 times:
Chinese to Sue JAL Over Treatment in Delay
BEIJING, Feb 16, 2001 -- (Reuters) More than 90 Chinese passengers plan to claim nearly $90,000 each from Japan Airlines in compensation for their treatment during an overnight delay at Osaka airport, state media said on Friday.
The passengers, each planning to demand 10 million yen for being left without adequate food and water for 16 hours, also accuse the airline of racial discrimination, the China Daily said.
Passengers of other nationalities were allowed to leave the airport and given hotel rooms for the night, while the Chinese had to remain at the airport, the newspaper said.
"At the moment, Japan Airlines is investigating this matter" and would make the results of the probe public, Japan Airlines spokesman Liu Hankun told Reuters in Beijing.
"We are taking this report very seriously, but we treat all passengers the same, no matter which nationality they are."
The Chinese passengers were on board a Japan Airlines flight from Beijing to Tokyo which was diverted to Osaka because of bad weather.
The 90 Chinese, including elderly and small children, spent a night in the airport terminal and were given only a small sandwich to eat but no water to drink, the China Daily said.
"When they found two Westerners and four people from Taiwan were in our group, airport officials allowed them to leave, but ordered us to stay quietly," Chinese passenger Li Jie was quoted as saying.
The China Daily did not say where and when the passengers planned to launch their suit.
Japanese media have said a growing number of Chinese were attempting to enter the United States and Canada from Japan with forged passports handed to them in Japanese airport transit areas.
In response to requests from U.S. immigration officials, the Justice Ministry had asked airlines to cooperate in policing international transit areas at Japan's airports, the Mainichi Shimbun said last month.
Red Panda From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2000, 1521 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 714 times:
Brissie Lions:
The incident is a very serious matter. It may be too early to say whether or not there was some racial stuff here, but it should be treated very seriously. This is the first time I hear some suspected racial or enthical discrimination practices by airlines. JAL should handle this matter very seriously and should give the media an investigation report. We should pay attention to this case and see how the lawsuit goes. Just keep us updated, Brissie Lions.
Gmjh_air From Sweden, joined Aug 2000, 110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 702 times:
Unfortunately, I think this is not uncommon at all!
I have seen it many times myself.
Mostly it happens in Asia and the Middle East, I haven't seen any incidents in Europe personally, but I don't see it being any exception.
I don't travel much to US, Africa and South America so I can not say, but once again I can't see why any region should be an exception.
I wish the Chinese could take their case to and American court and sue the s_ _ t out of JAL.
Jiml1126 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 697 times:
Because those Chinese passengers are the last group to get settled by JAL for meal services. So they thought JAL treats them as 2nd or 3rd class passengers.
B744 From New Zealand, joined Dec 1999, 491 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 688 times:
As Gmjh_air states, this is not at all uncommon. I've seen this sort of treatment dished out to many minority groups in my travels. Most notably, a group of six Sri Lankans denied entry into Kiev Borispol airport one time when I was there. They all had valid visas, but the immigration service still denied them entry. They had to stay in the terminal, sleeping on the floor (lino on concrete) for 4 days and were not provided any food or water by the authorities. On the 3rd day, the local red cross found out about their predicament and gave them some food. Makes me feel lucky but also guilty that I'm a white male. Racial discrimination is one of the great faults in this world, in my opinion...
Gmjh_air From Sweden, joined Aug 2000, 110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 676 times:
Jiml1126,
Just read again and note that the Chinese were not "settled" at all.
It happens all the time everywhere, mostly to people from 3rd world countries, but in certain cases also to people (like backpackers) whol looks like they ar travlling "cheap" and are not likely to make a fuzz over the treatment they get.
My opinion is; protest loudly whenever you have the opportunity to do so (within reason of course), and if you can make sure that the less fortunate than you on the same flight get the same treatment as you get.
VirginA340 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 15 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 675 times:
I had a racist incident with British Airways in the Summer of 1997 that happened to me and my parents at JFK. The Supervisor was no better than the emloyee who gave us the problem in the first place over a ticket problem when BA had lost our World Traveler reservations despite reconfirming 3 times. The man there muttered the words "Fu_ken Hindus!!!" Apparently he wasn't low enough because me, my parents, two Port Authority Police Officers and 5 other passengers waiting behind us had heard him say this and they were shocked. In the six month of complaints to London via e-mail, phone call and letter we got no reply from BA. I've even been harrased by a BA employee on this forum whos name is Duncan aka BA744 he is a systems analyist for BA .(Even though he wasn't showing anyracial discrimination) His attitude toward me is no better and it shows me that BA hasn't changed and now I refuse to fly with them and now whenever I fly JFK-LHR-DEL It'll be either UAL, Virgin, Air India, or Kuwait. I had a similar problem on Continental and that problem was taken care of within 72 hours. The employee in that situation had personally apoigized to me via telephone from EWR and we had ended up getting 3 free round trip domestic ticket with CO for our trouble. Since the employee had volunteered to apoligize instead of recomending her dismisal or suspension we had told CO to give her one more chance that she needs to be retrained and to be put through sensitivity training. Apoligizing to my family took guts. I fly CO to this day due to their professionalism in handling the matter where BA never replied back. I've told my family and friends Who fly to India out of JFK to fly on other airlines like the one I stated above.
Fly-By-Pilot From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 209 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 5 hours ago) and read 665 times:
I just saw a TV program on Japanese concentration camps where they did experiments on the Chinese and POW's during WWII. They even poisoned entire Chinese towns just to test bio and chemichal weapons. So I guess you could say that this story doesent surprise me.
Mx5_boy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (11 years 3 months 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 652 times:
"""In response to requests from U.S. immigration officials, the Justice Ministry had asked airlines to cooperate in policing international transit areas at Japan's airports, the Mainichi Shimbun said last month."""
I think the last statement explains it all.
However, there is one major problem. If JAL thought for any reason that the China Nationals posed any threat whatsoever then they are within their right to keep them under observation.
The Chinese nationals were stranded the same as other passengers were, why should they be treated any different?
If the US gov't and the Japanese gov't are paranoid about Chinese travelling through their airports then they should spend the money to at least monitor their progress, not treat them as second class citizens.
I look foward to a nice class action against JAL. Truly disgusting.
Bluridge From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (11 years 3 months 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 611 times:
These type of behavior should not be overlooked. JAL's action is in line with Japan's long history of racism and maltreatment of certain groups based on their nationality. Their action is no better than the KKKs and skinheads of the world. This should be exposed to the world and put an end to this shameful practice. What I would like to know is what is Chinese government doing about treatment of their citizens?
Us330 From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 3521 posts, RR: 17 Reply 12, posted (11 years 3 months 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 604 times:
Just like Bluridge said, the Japanese have a long history of doing this. To this day, they still have the tendency on looking down on non Japanese, which they refer to as "gaijin", which literally means foreigner, but is often used as a racial slur. I believe the Japanese even have a history of doing it to their own people. The Ainu, a native group of people who predominantly settled on the northern island of Hokkaido, and have been in modern day Japan longer than most other Japanese (who actually are the descendents of peoples native to China and the Korean peninsula). Basically, the Ainu are their version of Native Americans. Anyway, I am pretty sure, but not positive, that they have persecuted them for their beliefs and skin color as well, and it is still very hard for a Ainu descendent to get a job.
JAL must take this issue very sensitively and carefully, as a wrong move could cost them their reputation, as well as millions of dollars in lost profits and fines.
Red Panda From Hong Kong, joined Jun 2000, 1521 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (11 years 3 months 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 573 times:
During the WWII, Japanese was just like Nazists. Even now, japanese still denied that fact that their ancestors had killed many Asians especially Chinese in WWII. German learnt from the history, and now they know what's right and what's wrong; but Japanese didn't.
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