Rochester (New York), March 31 (Reuters): Hate the security hassles at the airport? Try being singled out every time you fly because your name is on the government’s watch list.

Asif Iqbal, a 31-year-old Pakistani software consultant from Rochester, New York, says he faces regular hassles because he has the same name as a Briton who was once held at the US prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba.

“I’m singled out every time I fly,” Iqbal, who travels each week for work, said in an interview yesterday .

“It’s absolute discrimination based on my name.”

Iqbal is confused with a Briton who was captured by US forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and recently was sent home. The name is still on the Transportation Security Administration’s “no-fly” list which airlines use for screening passengers.

To try to remedy the situation, he said he had met twice with TSA officials in Washington, DC. The agency once suggested he change his name, he said. Iqbal said the agency had sent him an official passenger identification letter to inform airlines that he is not the Iqbal on the watch list, but he said it has not helped. “The letter is basically useless,” he said. “Sometimes airlines say they’ve never seen a letter like that.”