Omar Fadhil of Iraq the model has written a post at Pajamas Media detailing his experiences while travelling to Amman, Jordan.

While I understand that Jordan might be skeptical of those arriving in their country from Iraq given the terrorist activity there, treating people like animals when you claim to be a civilized country is another thing.

In my opinion, that is exactly the treatment Omar and evidently many other citizens of Iraq have suffered when doing no more than attempting to have a Visa cleared for travel, or just trying to get home.

I was used to the mild discrimination the Jordanians have been practicing against Iraqis at the airport in Amman in recent years. Passengers on a flight coming from any airport in Iraq do not exit from an ordinary gate like other passengers. Instead we are taken by bus from the plane parked hundreds of meters from the terminal under the watch of guards armed with automatic guns. Then we pass through extra security X-ray, metal detection, and a body search - before they get to the passports counters, even though all of us had passed through the strictest airport security system on earth before getting on board.

But that’s OK and we got used to it.

But recently our Jordanian brothers came up with a truly outrageous practice of discrimination against Iraqis. All disembarking Iraqi passengers now are taken to special passport counters in a hall separated from the rest of airport facilities regardless of the origin of their flights or the airlines they came aboard. Attached to this hall is what Iraqis call “the prison”.

As Omar goes writes further he details the conditions experienced in “the prison.”

I would immediately say shame on Jordan with all of its technology and sophistication that they would resort to this type of treatment for anyone, let alone fellow Middle Easterners, but to one Iraqi travelling home with Omar, the thoughts were a bit different.

No, the guy sitting to my right objected. “They were mean to us and they hurt us, but if we do the same we’ll have sunk to their level. Let’s instead hope that one day our country will become a better place.”

Omar was right when he replied “Amen.”