I have done a vast amount of travel, though not recently. Also suffered pointless delaying questions that had no possible point while transiting customs. It was always perfectly clear something could be done about it, and this was that the wise traveler had ten US dollars folded in his passport when entering failed states, where, as also in this case, the boarder staff were really badly paid.
Been to more than one state where Islam was the official religion, and often the customs agent not only refused to take the money, but read me a gentle homily on how “his” countrymen had too much self respect for this to work. No such hesitation in any of the Christian states though. Good luck to them all.
