Aer Lingus: Language Tests

Ireland Dept: Aer Lingus announced in response to Associated Press questions it would suspend the year-old language tests employed at its check-in desks in Spain and in Portugal to try to identify people travelling on fake passports with immediate effect. Until Tuesday, those travelling on Greek passports but unable to show fluency in Greek could be refused permission to board, according to Winnipeg Free Press. The policy became public after a telecommunications executive in Ireland, Greek-born Chryssa Dislis, complained of degrading treatment when checking in for a Jan. 6 flight from Barcelona, Spain, to her home city of Cork in southwest Ireland and dUBLIN - An Irish airline apologized Tuesday for forcing a Greek woman living in Ireland to complete a language test in her native tongue to demonstrate that her passport and nationality were genuine. The bizarre episode underscored how, despite longtime European Union agreements to ease the movement of travellers throughout the 27-nation bloc, individual nations and companies reserve the right to erect awkward borders in hopes of deterring illegal immigration. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.