Originally Posted by
B747-437B
The only time I've been subject to a "random" check within the Schengen area was in Kaunas, Lithuania. I was detained and interrogated by Lithuanian immigration even though I was boarding an intra-Schengen flight and should not have been checked at all. The fact that I was on an Indian passport with a Schengen visa issued by the German Embassy in Ghana arrived in from Latvia and traveling to Finland with a Schengen entry stamp from Bratislava had nothing to do with it, nor the fact that I was probably the only brown skinned person in a 200 mile radius!
They had flagged you before they had even seen your passport, so the details of your passport were probably evident to them only after they had flagged you. I see this happen at ARN, CPH and FCO more often than even in Eastern Europe, but then again I am at those airports more frequently with "brown" associates than say at the likes of Polish or Greek airports.
Fortunately we have a litany of EU legal and government resources available that seem to be able to resolve matters to our favor sooner than later. Not everyone is as fortunate.