WASHINGTON, June 4: Civil rights groups filed lawsuits against four major airlines on Tuesday, alleging discrimination against five men who were removed from flights after the Sept. 11 attacks because they looked Middle Eastern.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee named United Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines in the suits filed in federal court in Maryland, New Jersey and California.

The lawsuits were filed on behalf of the five men — four US citizens and one permanent resident — who the groups said were ejected from flights for reasons unrelated to security and simply because of their perceived Middle East appearance or origin.

The suits ask the court to find that the airlines violated the plaintiffs civil rights and for the airlines to implement measure to prevent future discrimination.

The civil right groups said only two of the five men denied travel were of Arab descent.

“These cases show that people of many different ethnicities are being subjected to arbitrary and humiliating discrimination by airlines across the country,” said Jayashri Srikantiah, an attorney for the ACLU in a statement. “A country as diverse as the United States should have no tolerance for this kind of discrimination.”

The government denies it is engaging in racial profiling, noting that tougher security measures since Sept. 11 target passengers for myriad reasons, including those who buy one-way tickets or use cash to pay for expensive airline seats.

The Transportation Department on Monday said consumers filed 18 complaints in April — the latest data available — alleging discrimination by airlines due to factors other than disabilities, such as race, religion, national origin or sex.—Reuters