The university town of Tours, in the heart of France, is a very youthful place. Students from the central region and many foreigners come to Tours, especially to study at the well-known François Rabelais University and in the famous language schools in the town. More and more foreigners who wish to learn French and immerse themselves in French culture are attracted to Tours as the 'French' spoken in the central region is supposed to be devoid of any 'accent'; it is thus often said that they speak a kind of 'pure' French in Tours.

The university is well-known for its high-level research centres and academic strong points, such as African American Studies, modern history, urbanism, medicine and the biological sciences.

All these provide good reasons for many young people from both francophone and anglophone worlds to visit Tours and spend prolonged periods here as students, young researchers and full-time research fellows.

It should be highlighted that, contrary to what certain individuals tend to assume, the scope of international scholars in Tours is not limited to the so-called European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA). Certain personalities in the French government and, worse than that, educated members of the Tours University faculty (some of them at high positions in the administrative hierarchy of the University) tend to believe that the university of Tours, and universities in France and in Europe as a whole need to be 'European' and that they ought not give any 'stable'position to anybody who is 'non-European' (and NEVER if a potential candidate is 'non-white')....

The student body of the University of Tours extends not only to students from faraway lands of the French-speaking world, but to a substantial number of students from the Commonwealth of Nations. Among my batch-mates are students from the English West Indies, South Asian Commonwealth countries and Australasia. The Australasians are widely assumed to be 'white Europeans' or 'oxidentaux' as people in the (above-mentioned) discriminatory category have it.

This document is meant at unfolding a major act of xenophobia taking place at the Loire Valley International Airport, the only airport in Tours and the central region. Being the regional air-travel base, and having a low-cost flight to London, the heart of the Commonwealth of Nations, the airport in Tours is a passing terminal for many tourists of all colours and different nationalities. As the airport of such an 'international' university township, the personnel in such an institution ought to be accomodating and appreciators of 'the other'. But the policies that govern the airport in Tours can be called absolutely and deplorably 'racist', totally xenophobic and a living example of the 'xeno-racism' that has become a living reality in a country supposed to be one of the world's greatest model democracies.

The target of this racism are non-white, non-European travellers, hence the suitability of the term 'racism' to describe their acts. Whenever a non-white non-EU national goes to one of the three check-in desks, they have an irritating statement to make:

“On va vérifier votre passeport. Vous attendez par là”

They have a policy of taking the passport of all non-white non-EU (and non-North American) travellers, taking it into a small office room, virtually going through every single page of the passport, and brining it back after a while with a cynical smile on their faces. A certain senior official does this efficiently, while there is a 'particular young employee' who takes more than half-an-hour to 'check' a passport, for the mere reason that the bearer is non-white and non-European.

In a world where international relations have seen many developments, this practice needs to be highlighted as 'racist', and 'ultra-xenophobic'.

The authorities concerned, and many people who uphold the ideologies of racist political figures such as Mr Philippe de Villiers or Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter, may affirm that this kind of control is necessary in order to avoid illegal immigration, the passage of clandestines from one EU country to another, and, of course, for reasons of defence and security.

If they are really concerned about these issues, a human being with the slightest intellect should be able to understand that the kind of control described above is absolutely futile in reaching their goals. In today's world, no terrorist would have the foolish idea of travelling in Europe with a non-EU passport. Many of the non-EU travellers who head to London from Tours are Commonwealth nationals, who certainly have the right entry permits and certain 'rights' within the UK territory, and for them, going to London is virtually equivalent to going to a land of their own. Such people , from English-speaking South Asia or the English West-Indies have absolutely no need to travel to the United Kingdom illegally; if they cannot travel to the UK as regular tourists, how can anybody else be able to set foot on UK territory...? The personnel at the Loire Valley International Airport, and most importantly the high-level officials there should be sent back to secondary school, or given a good few intensive lessons in history, international relations and diplomacy.

Besides, the immigration authorities in British airports are extremely well-organized, and their policies, though strict, have absolutely no stain of racism or xenophobic treatment of peoples depending on their skin-colour and ethnic origin. The French authorities at the Loire Valley airport ought to take their British counterparts as an example, and they ought to learn to cohabit in a world of diversity, ethnic and racial inclusion. Their racism and xenophobia are their problem and they should not bring all that into their workplace and put innocent, educated, respect-worthy people in unpleasant circumstances.

Furthermore, non-EU nationals are not the only victims of this xenophobia. Marion(we call her so to secure confidentiality) is a postgraduate student at the University of Tours. She is from the overseas territory of a French Overseas Territory in the Americas and...on her way back from London after a short tour a few months ago, she was held back for over 15 minutes!!! The only reason for this being the apparent 'transportation of drugs from that Département d'Outre-Mer to metropolitan France'- which was making news that week...She was just like the large number of other young people on their way back home after a short tour in Britain. Who can say that Marion would have undergone the same experience had she been 'white' and more 'European looking'? How else can such an attitude be described other than with the word 'racist'?

We expect all moderate-minded individuals to join hands with us in rising against this xenophobic and shameless malpractice and force the racist authorities and their equally racist and 'xenophobic' employees to change their ways of treating non-white, and non-EU nationals.