New York’s Kennedy Airport is the toughest to get past for prospective asylum seekers, according to a study by the Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The New York Times reported that the Kennedy Airport was the only airport in the U.S. where shackles were routinely used and where personal interviews are conducted at public counters. It is also the airport that sent back most asylum seekers to their home country — some 11,000 in a three-year period, five times the number they passed for in-depth interviews with asylum officers.

The commission examined the eight-year-old system known as expedited removal under which inspectors can send back travelers without valid documents unless they express fear of returning.

(Compiled from news dispatches by M. Chooki)