A Pakistani who tried to transfer €200 through a Dublin branch of Western Union financial services had his transaction suspended after being told his name matched that of an international terrorist.
Mohammed Ali (31), a father-of-one who has been living in Ireland for six years and is due to become a naturalised Irish citizen shortly, said the money was a present for his sister-in-law who lives in Karachi.
After being told his name matched that of a terrorist suspect, he said he was asked to provide additional evidence of his identity over a two-day period before the funds were eventually released.
"I thought is was a joke at the start. Then when I told my wife, and she started crying. She was scared and didn't know what the consequences would be. I am a Muslim. I was also worried, about what might happen to us. My wife is expecting another child in a few weeks," Mr Ali said.
After providing additional proof of his identity, Western Union staff told him he was able to proceed with the transaction. However, Mr Ali said he never received an apology.
"I'm not looking for compensation or anything. I would like a written apology as to why they did this," he said.
A spokeswoman for Western Union said it faces a legal requirement to screen all money transactions against lists of names of persons identified as being linked with terrorism and other illegal activity. This list is supplied by the US Treasury's office of foreign assets control, the EU and other government and law enforcement agencies.
Where the sender or recipient of a money transfer has a name identical or similar to one of the names on one of these lists, the company suspends the transaction and investigates. Mr Ali's name was deemed to resemble one of those on the list.
"This was a very unfortunate incident and we apologise if any of our customers feel they were disrespected in any way. However, there is a law and we are obliged to follow it. The law is the same for all customers and we do not discriminate."
