smilek
Institutional Racism at BLS India Madrid Office
I was invited to attend the Sansaar Poetry Festival in New Delhi by The Raza Foundation where I was asked to recite and be a part of a panel of international poets , I am a Sudanese poet residing in Granada, Spain. I called the helpline in order to ask about what I needed to do to apply for a visa to attend The Sansaar Festival in New Delhi and prepared my visa application, the invitation letter, the clearance letter from the Indian Ministry of Affairs, photos, passport copy and spanish residence card and booked my appointment. I took a 5 hour bus ride from the south of Spain (Granada) to Madrid and was on time for my 12:30 appointment. When I arrived to desk counter 4 I was attended to by an employee who appeared to be Spanish who others referred to as Kema or Gemma . I gave her my paperwork and she asked me what kind of visa I wanted as if I was at Pizza Hut choosing toppings. She then informed me of the opposite information I was given by the helpline that if I had an invitation letter I could not apply for a tourist visa. When I asked what kind of visa I would need to apply for she claimed she did not know and took photos of my paperwork and sent them to an unknown "Official" I was asked to wait for his response. She then attended to an elderly couple of Spaniards the wife did her biometric photo and fingerprints on first attempt and the husband had to redo his biometric photo and fingerprints 22 times(I counted and spoke with his wife who was also extremely annoyed with the undesirable wait). By the time she finished and finally was able to process his file she informed me it was her lunchtime, It was 2 in the afternoon. I had to cancel my bus back to Granada and reschedule my last evening class to online to accommodate this and waited for her to return she did so at 3 pm. From 3 to 6 pm I waited as she received news that what I needed was called an “entry visa” and I signed the paperwork submitted my photos and was waiting to pay and to the biometric photo and fingerprints step. She then proceeded to tell me that there was no need for me to come in person and that I could have sent it by courier stating it was URGENT (which is the opposite information I was given by the helpline which informed me that it took up to ten days to process it via courier and that in any case I needed to come in person in order to do the biometric step of the application.) She then disappeared from her desk until another woman Indian appeared and informed me that I needed to stay a few days in Madrid until they could find out how to process an entry visa for a person holding a Sudanese passport with a Spanish residency card. When I kindly informed her that I could not stay in Madrid and that i had travelled from Granada she disappeared and an Indian Man arrived and asked me to wait and that they are doing their best to try and find a solution. Minutes later he arrived and asked me to ask the Raza Foundation (my host) to change the dates of the festival so that they could have more time to "figure out" how to grant me an "entry" visa adding that there were no assurances that I would be able to finally have a visa in time and that they could not be held responsible for that. This place is unprofessional, reeked of instituitional racism I have no idea how the Embassy of India could subcontract such incompetent employees to represent their country in Spain. Beyond this review I will also be writing an article in a local Spanish newspaper about this incident. I have spent the bulk of my career teaching Indian and marginalised literature from all over the world and cannot believe the disrespect, humiliation and lack of humanity I experienced as a non EU passport holding person of color at the BLS Madrid Office. I wasted a total of 16 hours at this place which felt like a SCAM with equipment that would not work, lazy and evasive employees and I hope by voicing my own experience I will receive a formal apology for what has occurred and if not I will continue speaking about my experience at every event and in every medium where I am invited to in the future. I understand now why telephones are strictly prohibited and recording of any kind is not tolerated in this place it is not by the books and very clearly corrupt. Also note the high reviews on Google which reek of fraudulence.