RASOOL: DON'T GO TO THE USA

Ebrahim Rasool, the former South African Ambassador to the US, has issued a warning to people of colour regarding their safety when travelling to the United States.

This caution comes in the wake of health and political activist Zackie Achmat's recent detention by US Customs and Border Protection for several hours upon his return from Canada.

Achmat, 63, was held by customs and border agents at Pearson Airport.

He was travelling to Cape Town with a connecting flight through Newark.

Achmat had received the inaugural Paul Farmer award for Global Health Equity, which was established in honour of the late Dr Paul Farmer, a physician, advocate, and global health icon.

While initially receiving the award last year, Achmat only arrived last week to accept it in person.

Speaking on his ordeal, Achmat said: “A very dumpy MAGA member, who will not be referred to by their gender, because they were really horrible, asked me whether I was carrying anything biological. I asked what they meant? (They said) ‘Biological, you know’.

“I'm like, ‘no, I don't know’. Is it my underpants, my dirty underpants?”

Achmat said that he was asked a series of successive questions about who he spoke to and where he stayed.

Despite his internal reservations about not sharing the information, he did inform them that he was in Montreal after being invited to give a talk.

Achmat explained that he was taken to an area where there were two other people sitting.

“I chatted to both of them, trying to calm them down as I was like, ‘What is this?’ But clearly, the most stressful thing for any human being is to go through immigration, and that's a known thing, especially for people who are refugees, asylum seekers, or immigrants.

“They face terror. I'm a lucky person,” Achmat said.

He added that he sat down, read his book after “a really nice man” re-questioned him.