On Wednesday, Western Union came into controversy and received flak for alleged racism when actor and model Hazel Keech was denied permission to transfer money via Western Union Money Transfer, for not being “Hindu enough”.
Keech’s fiancee, cricketer Yuvraj Singh took to Twitter to condemn the incident, bringing widespread attention to the matter.
Western Union later reached out to The Quint to offer a statement regarding the issue, adding that they regretted the incident and the inconvenience caused to Hazel Keech, and that the matter is under investigation.
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For cross-border remittances, the “regulators expect that the relationship between the sender and receiver is established prior to payout,” the statement added.
Keech was reportedly questioned on her background as a Hindu, drawing her ire. She took to Twitter to express her anger.
Western Union explained that they expect the location (in this case Jaipur) to “conduct additional due diligence in case of uncertainty” about the receiver’s relationship with the sender.
It remains to be seen whether the official in question was being racist or was only being thorough with his job.
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