KAMPALA — Ugandan journalist and anti-corruption activist Agather Atuhaire has alleged that she was subjected to racial profiling and unfair treatment by immigration officials at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, causing her to miss a connecting flight to Nairobi and suffer emotional distress.
Atuhaire, an award-winning investigative journalist and human rights advocate, said the incident occurred on Thursday while she was transiting through the Dutch airport after attending the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway.
In a statement posted on X after returning safely to Uganda, Atuhaire claimed immigration officers questioned the authenticity of her Ugandan e-passport and detained her for more than 30 minutes, despite her extensive travel history through the airport.
“Immigration officers in Amsterdam looked at me and thought I can’t have a genuine passport. They hadn’t even opened it,” Atuhaire wrote.
She said officials continued to hold her passport for verification and dismissed her suggestion that they review the numerous visas and entry stamps contained in the document.
“When I told them to check the passport because it has stamps and visas, they said those can be forged too,” she stated.
According to Atuhaire, the delay ultimately caused her to miss her scheduled KLM flight to Nairobi. She said immigration officials only completed the verification process after the aircraft had departed.
“They finished ‘verifying’ long after the plane had left and said I should be grateful they were getting me another ‘free flight’,” she said.
The activist further alleged that authorities offered her an alternative flight 24 hours later but provided no accommodation, assistance, explanation, or apology.
“When the ‘free flight’ they got me was 24 hours later, they told me to either wait at the airport or figure out where to spend the next 24 hours. No explanation. No remorse. No apology,” she said.
Atuhaire said the ordeal triggered severe anxiety and breathing difficulties, leading to what she described as an emotional breakdown. She linked the experience to trauma resulting from previous detention and alleged torture while in Tanzania earlier this year.
“I don’t know if it was the anger or anxiety that made it very difficult to breathe or even utter a word and caused me a breakdown, but it is very unfortunate that in 2026 there are people that still simply look at others and assume they are fraudsters,” she wrote.
The incident has drawn criticism from the Human Rights Foundation, which reportedly condemned the treatment and called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the delay.
The allegations also sparked widespread discussion online, with several Ugandans sharing similar experiences of heightened scrutiny while transiting through Schiphol Airport.
Despite the ordeal, Atuhaire expressed gratitude to friends in the Netherlands who assisted her during the unexpected layover.
“Luckily, good friends came to my rescue and also redeemed the reputation of the Dutch just a bit,” she wrote, adding that a formal complaint had already been lodged with the relevant authorities.
Neither Dutch immigration authorities nor Schiphol Airport had publicly responded to the allegations by press time.
The incident has renewed debate about racial profiling, treatment of African travellers at international airports, and the balance between border security measures and the respectful treatment of passengers.
