Thirty men have been fired from Geneva airport in Switzerland just days after a major terrorist threat. All the men – reported to be baggage handlers – had their security passes removed in December with no reason given by the authorities. It has now been revealed they were all male Muslims with Arabic names.
It has been confirmed today that 28 of the sacked men were French passport holders with Arabic names.
“Almost all are Muslims”, according to reports.
The sackings came just days after a major terrorism alert in Geneva, which saw public buildings and railway stations put into lockdown, and two terminals of the city airport closed.
The revelation comes in the pages of German paper the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which reports the airport worker’s union is still trying to get a straight answer over why the men were dismissed last year.
So far, only that the airport has the right to terminate any employee with an access badge for security reasons at any time has been confirmed — yet the union is agitating to get compensation for lost earnings.
While it has not been established if the 30 men lost their passes suddenly and without warning because they were suspected of being a terror threat, German-language reports suggest that another former airport employee who was arrested by the French security services for Islamic terrorism may have led them to an even larger cell at the airport.
That the men are believed to have been employed to handle baggage — perhaps the most significant potential weak point in airport security — could be significant.
It is thought the bomb that brought down a Russian jet airliner over the Sinai peninsula last year was smuggled on-board inside baggage, and could have been planted by an Islamist baggage handler.
Breitbart London reported earlier this month on the revoked Geneva runway passes, when the fired airport staff were described as “radicalised” baggage handlers. An airport spokesman said at the time the fact the passes had been revoked did not necessarily mean all the men would lose their jobs, remarking: “But in all likelihood, some will not keep their jobs”.