Lech Walesa vs Immigration: Brits humiliated him at London Heathrow Airport

"They were taking my underwear and socks from my luggage and showing it to everybody...."

Another case of British antipolonism,me thinks!

this isn`t insult only to Walesa

i think that all Eastern European Slavs needs to respond by total boycott of the British products. Then, Brits shall think twice before they insult anybody who is Slavic.

Polska!

Ha! two foreigners coming to a English speaking forum to tell the Poles what to do.

So what? He isn't a diplomat so can't refuse the normal procedures. Strange that they checked him - to suggest 'antipolonism' is laughable. Presumably he was picked out for another reason.

What do you mean "so what"?Whether you like him or not, (I don't), he is the most recognizable Polish face in the whole world . Can you imagine Nelson Mandela or George Bush having to undergo this "normal procedure"?I can't.My God,if they disrespected even L.W I can only imagine what ordinary Poles have to go thru in this forsaken country full of Polish haters.I will never ever set a foot there.Poland has to protest and those who humiliated Lechu have to be fired from their jobs.

Presumably you mean foot


Is he really? Maybe he seemed vaguely familiar to them

Did they 'disrespect' him, or were they doing their job?


Nothing. Since 2004 they just show their passport. If security check someone's baggage it is only with good reason. Nothing to do with nationality and VIPs, whether A list or C list are not exempt from that - only diplomats and diplomatic couriers are exempt. Remind me how easy it is for Poles to get into your adopted country?


WTF?


Lotsa luck with that.

Never liked Britain, never will.
What a PoS country.

POLSKA!

What do you know? Nothing !!

As a frequent WizzAir and RyanAir flyer between UK and Poznan, I can assure the treatment received in Poland is far worse. The duards even get angry when you obey their rules. I spent an hour sat in an office for not presenting my passport with my Polish partner when the sign clearly said one at a time in English and Polish. Over zealous body searches when you first pass through the hand baggage check. Women border guards putting their hands in female passengers underwear. What's that about? Border guards that look like children wandering around with guns!! Polish people telling the guards that they are miserable Ass**** because they are not getting any sex. Stampede mentality on the way out. Welcome to the zoo.

I expect Lech (who was extremely popular in the UK) wasn't happy to queue up; after all it is not something that Poles practise particularly well. Like everyone that passes through a UK airport, give the staff any grief, you are getting it back by getting your bags searched and spending extra time. It doesn't matter who you are!!If they stopped every Pole and treated them badly, there would be outrage. I don't hear it. Do you? Also if they stopped every Pole they would make a fortune fining them for illegally imported food products and drugs that are illegal in the UK like kettamine; but they don't.

well done ant - that about sums it up.

Did UK Prime Minister David Cameron order the humiliation of Lech Walesa on the bidding of Beijing? See here:
/tompride.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/did-cameron-order-the-humiliat ion-of-lech-walesa-on-the-bidding-of-beijing/

I wasn't aware that Cameron had the power to order Walesa to act like an arrogant buffoon.

Imagine? Why do you have to imagine what hundreds of thousands of Poles have already been through? have you ever been through airport security?

Sure its intrusive , but at least they don't fingerprint and photograph you as happens when you enter the USA. They will also rile through your underwear and in Australia they will confiscate any food they find.

Tell me have you ever been on an international flight ?

Speaking as a Brit. I'm ashamed. But, speaking as a Brit again, I seem to have felt fairly continuously ashamed about the ways we deal with our neighbours...

Sam B


You are not speaking as a Brit. You are speaking like somebody that believes the buffoons side of the story. Do a bit of research and find out about the man, Walesa. You will see he is more often than not, an embarrassment to Poland these days. His mouth overtakes his brain.

Yeah but I've been treated like a dodgy person at UK airports a few times and I'm a Brit of very good standing, clean record etc. One of the rudest to me at a UK airport was a Polish girl who was a guard, ironically enough.

Airports in a lot of places are like that now. I wonder if Wałęsa tried to pull a "Do you know who I am?" Which most likely got him a reply he didn't like.

"Don't you know who I am!!!!"

"Why, don't you know who you are?"

assure you, this incident really is very odd. It's normal practice for diplomatic VIPs from EU countries to be allowed to enter the country without being stopped and having their bags searched.

After all, what on earth do the border guards think they'll find among the 70-year-old Lech Walesa's underwear – bomb making equipment or Al Qaeda propaganda?

This action occurred at exactly the same time as the Cameron government announced a charm offensive aimed at the Chinese Communist leadership in Beijing – a charm offensive which includes the present high level visit by Cameron, Osborne and Boris Johnson as well as the announcement of a new visa system aimed at attracting rich Chinese visitors and Chinese government officials to Britain.

Walesa has been a long-standing thorn in the side of the Chinese government. Not least because he is seen as the person who brought about the destruction of the Soviet Communist system but also because he has openly supported Chinese dissidents and human rights activists.

How is that feasible? I mean really?

Walesa isn't one of those.

Good point but is that story even possible? I do not find that particular Cameron/Chinese conspiracy to be credible.

In this case, the correct word to use is "incident". Just my little contribution to Polish translations, I often see "action" and "co-operation" used wrongly when Poles use English.

Walesa is just another Polish citizen (as far as UK border authorities are concerned). It's entirely possible that that he was expecting VIP treatment when he landed but instead was treated as just another traveler and that he reacted badly to that. Frankly I wouldn't be at all surprised if he wasn't even recognised at Heathrow.

It is a quote not translation.

How would anybody know who he is? They don't know your name when you go through security. At Stanstead they no longer have a human reading the passports before you enter.

Could anyone here list the previous prime ministers of , say, Italy - never mind recognize them?


Only diplomatic bags from the embassy are not search. Everything else is.

Given the stuff LW has come out with lately, we should stop him getting back in!

According to the article and what I've heard on the news yesterday, Wałęsa asked the Polish Embassy three times whether they got a VIP pass for him for the British airport and they said they did. Also at a Polish airport Wałęsa asked about this and he was reassured again.

The Polish Embassy in London in a statement said that they aksed the UK's Foreign Office for a VIP pass for Wałęsa but they were declined.

So I don't know what happened - the Polish Embassy didn't inform Wałęsa that he may be subjected to a control at the airport or what?

Wałęsa says that he doesn't know whether someone did this to him on purpose or the Polish Embassy wasn't able to get such a simple thing done.

According to UK media, Walesa reckons the whole thing was "a provocation organised by the Polish embassy,".


I know that when Warsaw airport seriously increased the charges for using the VIP terminal there, several Warsaw embassies simply stopped using it for anything below head of state level.

if come in conflict with EU ruling establishment, Walesa can always ask for political asylum in Serbia

Imagine scandal