Agather Atuhaire breaks silence on Amsterdam airport incident that triggered breakdown

Ugandan journalist and human rights activist Agather Atuhaire has spoken out about her ordeal at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, saying Dutch immigration officers subjected her to what she believes was racial profiling and treated her as a suspected fraudster without properly examining her passport.

In a statement posted on X after returning home, Atuhaire said she was now safe and recovering from the incident that left her distressed and caused her to miss her connecting flight.

"Immigration officers in Amsterdam looked at me and thought I can't have a genuine passport. They hadn't even opened it," Atuhaire wrote.

She said officials held her for a long period while they claimed to be verifying her Ugandan passport.

According to Atuhaire, officers dismissed her attempts to explain that the passport contained several visas and entry stamps that could help establish its authenticity.

"When I told them to check the passport because it has stamps and visas, they said those can be forged too," she said.

Atuhaire noted that she had previously travelled through Schiphol Airport more than 10 times and argued that a simple check of her travel history would have resolved any concerns.

The incident occurred while she was travelling from Oslo, Norway, where she had attended the 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum, to Nairobi, Kenya.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF), which first publicised the incident, said Dutch immigration officers temporarily confiscated her passport and delayed her long enough to miss her connecting flight.

HRF said the encounter triggered memories of Atuhaire's alleged abduction and torture in Tanzania in May 2025, leading to an emotional and physical breakdown at the airport.

The rights organisation said officers eventually returned the passport and rebooked her onto another flight departing 24 hours later.

Atuhaire confirmed that officials later secured another ticket but criticised their response after she missed her flight.

"They said I should be grateful they are getting me another 'free flight' like they had found me stranded without a flight back home," she wrote.

She added that officials gave her no explanation, apology or accommodation despite the lengthy delay.

"When the 'free flight' they got me was 24 hours later, they told me to either wait at the airport or figure out where to spend the next 24 hours."

Atuhaire said the experience left her struggling to breathe and unable to speak.

"I don't know if it was the anger or anxiety that made it very difficult to breathe or even utter a word and caused me a breakdown," she wrote.

She said she had since filed a formal complaint and raised the matter with relevant authorities.

Atuhaire also thanked friends who assisted her after the incident.

"I hope that at the very least they never racially profile any other person like that again," she said.

Neither Dutch immigration authorities nor Dutch airline KLM had publicly commented on the allegations by the time of publication.