A 33-year-old Indian-origin woman from Singapore was allegedly humiliated at the Frankfurt airport in Germany by the security officials after she was asked to squeeze her own breasts to prove that she was lactating.
The woman, Gayathiri Bose, who works as a manager at a transport company in Singapore, has lodged a complaint with the German authorities over her alleged ill-treatment by the airport officials in the guise of security check, according to a BBC report.
Bose, in her complaint, wrote that the German officials present at the airport asked her to squeeze her breasts as they felt suspicious of a breast pump she was carrying.
Bose, who is a mother of two kids, the younger one aged just seven months, said she felt very ''humiliated" and "traumatised" by the experience.
The German police admitted that such extreme measures were "clearly" not part of the routine process but did not comment on the allegations made by Bose.
"If a suspected explosive is detected at an air safety control point, the baggage and the person must be searched. The measures you have described for a breastfeeding mother are clearly not included," Christian Altenhofen, spokesman for the German Federal Police unit at Frankfurt Airport told BBC.
Bose narrated the incident by stating that she was travelling alone and was about to board a flight to Paris last Thursday when she was abruptly stopped at a security-screening station. She said she was taken aside for questioning after they found a breast pump in her bag.
The woman said that the authorities questioned her in an incredulous tone asking her questions like: "You are breastfeeding? Then where is your baby? Your baby is in Singapore?".
Reports state that the officials kept her passport and she was led to a room by a female police officer for further questioning. Once inside the room, Bose said the officer "asked me to open up my blouse and show her my breast. She wanted me to show her by hand-expressing a little."
Bose said she had to comply as she was in shock at the moment. "I was just in shock, I was going through the motions. I was all by myself as well, and wasn't sure what would happen to me if they decided to make trouble for me. It was only when I came out of the room that I began to slowly understand what had just happened. I just started to cry, I was terribly upset."
The woman was allowed to board her plane only after the officials tested and cleared her breast pump and then returned her passport.
"When they finally cleared me of the matter, I told them that this is not the way to treat someone. I said: Do you know what you just did to me, you made me show my breast. The officer just said, Okay it is over now, please go," Bose said.
Christian Altenhofen, spokesperson for the German Federal Police unit at Frankfurt airport, told BBC that he could not comment on the incident "for reasons of data protection".
