KLM denies discriminating vs. World Youth Day delegate from Talaandig tribe

Published July 25, 2013 4:10pm

The European airline whose staff barred an 18-year old indigenous Filipina from taking a connecting flight to Brazil to attend the World Youth Day (WYD) said it does not discriminate passengers—even if one of its employees reportedly assessed the delegate as being “not ready for travel” despite having all the necessary documents.

On its Twitter account, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said it “does not discriminate and accepts passengers with valid travel documents.”

@kintoy KLM does not discriminate and accepts passengers with valid travel documents. We confirm that Arjean has arrived in Brazil @GoodXorg

— Royal Dutch Airlines (@KLM) July 24, 2013

The company has been repeatedly posting the statement since Wednesday in response to Twitter users if it is part of the company’s policy to discriminate against Filipino passengers.

KLM has been the subject of criticism on social networking sites after news broke that its staff in Kuala Lumpur International Airport prevented Arjean Marie Belco from boarding her connecting flight to Rio de Janeiro on July 20.

Belco, a WYD delegate from Bukidnon’s Talaandig tribe, was supposedly told by KLM employees that she was “not ready to travel” even if she passed through Malaysian immigration smoothly and had a folder with full documentation proving her trip to Brazil.

The 18-year old Filipina was stranded in Kuala Lumpur for two days before GoodXorg, a non-profit group, was able to rebook her flight to Brazil.

In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed that Belco arrived in Brazil on Tuesday on board KLM Flight No. KL 705.

The DFA said the Filipina delegate was met by Philippine Ambassador to Brazil Eva Betita and other members of the Philippine consulate in Brazil upon her arrival at the Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro.

With the help of WYD organizers, the Philippine Embassy in Brazil has set up a secretariat in Rio de Janeiro to provide assistance to Filipino pilgrims attending WYD 2013. Delegates from São Paulo and nearby cities can also seek consular assistance from the embassy for the duration of the program, DFA said.

World Youth Day

The ongoing World Youth Day events, which are expected to attract more than one million people from around the world, are an effort by the Vatican to galvanize young Catholics at a time when rival denominations, secularism and distaste over sexual and financial scandals continue to lead some faithful to abandon the Church.

Pope Francis, 76, arrived in Brazil on Monday to a wildly enthusiastic reception. His message of humility and rejection of the luxurious trappings used by papal predecessors have endeared him to many Catholics.

The pope's desire to be close to his flock, though, has complicated security around his visit, especially after he used a simple, four-door Fiat for his ride into Rio from the airport and insisted on using an open top vehicle to greet visitors during a welcome procession through the city center.

On Wednesday, Pope Francis arrived at a shrine in southeastern Brazil, where he will celebrate his first Mass outside Italy as pontiff and seek to energize the faithful in the country that is home to the world's largest Roman Catholic population.

On the third day of his week long visit for World Youth Day, a biennial Church gathering being celebrated in and around Rio de Janeiro, Francis will preach to faithful in Aparecida, Brazil's most important Catholic shrine.

More than 150,000 people are expected to attend the service about 162 miles (260 km) west of Rio, a locale long venerated in Brazil as a shrine to the Virgin Mary and site where Francis, as an Argentine cardinal during a 2007 visit by Pope Benedict XVI, cemented his place as a leader of the Church in Latin America. - with reports from Xianne Arcangel, Reuters/VVP, GMA News

Tags: worldyouthday