Comedian Eric Andre took to Instagram on Sunday to allege that he was "racially profiled" by security at Melbourne Airport during a 25-hour trip to Australia. In a video shared with his followers, Andre recounted being "detained," "pulled out of a lineup," and subjected to a thorough dog search in a special line.
“Those dogs are pretty much ineffective,” Andre remarked amid voicing his frustration. “It’s one of the many times I’ve been racially profiled at the airport. So this is a message for all black, brown, and Indigenous people traveling through Melbourne today, especially if you’re traveling through Qantas International by Terminal 2: Please be careful.”
Andre also appealed to his followers for help in finding a discrimination lawyer in Australia and requested statistics on how many "people of color" were subjected to dog-sniffing searches compared to white travelers at the airport.
“They are searching black, brown, and Indigenous people,” he claimed. “Please let me know if anybody knows the names of those officers with the dogs or what that program is.”
“It has nothing to do with safety,” André added. “It has everything to do with racial harassment.”
In response to the experience, Andre suggested that any future employers in Australia should provide him with a police escort or alternative security arrangements when passing through the Melbourn Airport, or arrange for him to fly directly between Brisbane and Sydney to avoid the airport entirely.
The official Melbourne Airport Instagram account responded to Andre’s post, stating that the airport "does not tolerate racism in any form." The comment added, “We are following up your complaint with the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) who are in charge of processing all international arrivals at Melbourne Airport and other Australian international gateways. Melbourne Airport is proudly the gateway to one of the most multicultural cities in the world. We welcome ALL passengers to Melbourne, and we expect everyone to be treated equally.”
This is not the first time Andre has accused airport security of racism. In 2021, he accused Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport of racial profiling after being subjected to a random search, during which law enforcement asked to search for drugs, according to the New York Post.
