Bristol: OFFICERS AT AIRPORT ARE TARGETING US, SAY SOMALIS

Somalis living in Bristol say they are being targeted by police at the city's airport because of the color of their skin and their religion. Young Somali men say they feel harassed and that they have been treated like criminals by police officers operating at Bristol International Airport. Gulaid Magan, aged 23, who used to be a special constable for Avon and Somerset Police, said he felt angry about the way he was treated when he was stopped by officers from Special Branch.

Mr. Magan, a British citizen, said he was questioned on August 16 after coming back from a weekend in Amsterdam. He said he was strip searched and threatened with arrest if he failed to answer any questions. He was allowed to go but said he felt like he had been under interrogation. And another Somali, who asked not to be named, said he had been stopped at the airport six times over a three-month period.

Mr. Magan, a trainee electrician from St Werburgh's, said: "They said they stopped me because I have a Somalian background. “They were asking me so many questions about my life and even asked whether I was a good Muslim and what I thought about what was happening in the Middle East. "I am not a practicing Muslim. I live a regular life. I'm not interested in politics, I'm more interested in what I'm going to be doing at the weekend."

Mr. Magan has been living in Britain since the age of two and holds a British passport. He said: "It is the kind of thing that will make young men angry and they will not want to help the police in the future if they know somebody is doing something dodgy. "I know the police have to work to stop terrorism, but this is not the way to get the community to help."

The police say there were checks being carried out during the summer and that people from a number of different nationalities were stopped and questioned.

Police spokeswoman Ceri Doyle said: "We are not able to discuss individual cases."

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