Scanning system at Dhaka airport poor

The UK Department of Transport in a report has expressed concern over the scanning systems of passengers, luggage and cargoes at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital, but acknowledged the reasonable protective security measures around it.

The security assessment was undertaken by a UK aviation security expert--the Regional Aviation Security Liaison Officer (Raslo) for Bangladesh--on December 15 last year. In its findings, the report said the airport has failed to meet the required security standards in 75 percent of observations, while succeeded in maintaining that in 25 percent of observations.

It further revealed that the passenger and staff screening process at the terminal was ineffective with the screener not duly focusing on the task, while few bag searches were done during the observation period.

The report said body searches were consistently poor. Similar poor standards of screening of passengers and cabin bags were observed in the gate room's central search area during the period. Staff screening standards at the CIP and VIP access points were also found poor.

However, protective security measures were in place around the airport; hold baggage on transfer to the aircraft as well as in-flight supplies (IFS) were effectively screened and protected during the survey time.

In its observation on front house security, it said, "Although bags were all screened, the quality of the screening was unsatisfactory and no bag searches were observed."

About hold baggage security observations, the report mentioned that such baggage was screened by conventional x-ray and supported by the deployment of ETD on the exterior surfaces of bags.

Although ETD was deployed, it was not used particularly effectively, it added.

About supervisory capability and effectiveness, the report said supervision was very ineffective. Managers and CAAB (Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh) staff, including the airport director, do walk the patch, but appeared to deal with issues by shouting at staff and there was no coaching and mentoring taking place.

Asked, Md Rashedul Islam Khan, commanding officer of the Airport Armed Police (AAP), said, “AAP is responsible for ensuring the airport security, but passenger and cargo scanning is not our duties."