Airport security to be enhanced

 

The Freundel Stuart-led Government is looking at updating the aviation security in this country.

 

So says Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner. She made the comments while piloting the debate on the Civil Aviation (Amendment) Bill in the Senate yesterday morning, but remained mum on the details, so as not to give any “potential law breakers any ideas”. However, she did reveal that Government was looking to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United States’ Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to assist in those efforts.

 

She explained that the TSA has offered to lend Barbados several pieces of screening equipment, which will upgrade the present measures at the airport. She indicated that when the TSA upgrades their equipment they make the replaced equipment available to other countries, and to have access to it, Barbados would have to sign an MOU with the US agency. Sandiford-Garner said that the legal issues that could arise from signing that MOU have been discussed and are being reviewed, and the Grantley Adams International Airport’s management is looking at what will go into maintaining those machines when they arrive.

 

She made the point while contending that the country is making every effort to upgrade airport security to a “very sophisticated level”, even though there have been few breaches of the security measures to date”.

 

“… Many times the security breaches happen outside of Barbados and this speaks to the efficiency of what we have on the ground here. Much of what happens, lands here, as you would have noted in the last incident we would have had on board the Air Canada flight. That didn’t begin here, that security breach or that security challenge began outside of Barbados. Much of the contraband and so on which enters this country would first have to be placed on an airplane or an aircraft outside of Barbados to get here,” she said.

 

In spite of that fact, Sandiford-Garner said that they understand the importance of updating and enhancing the security at the airport, and are looking at the upstream security programme to further enhance the system. She explained that each state that has signed on to the International Civil Aviation Organisation is required to screen departing and in-transit passengers to ensure that no unauthorised weapons are allowed on aircraft or in the terminal buildings. What they have done, she said, is implement the upstream screening programme by way of MOUs with other countries, where screening is done on a reciprocal basis to avoid rescreening of in transit passengers.

 

“We are looking to enter into agreements with some other Caribbean states to exchange security assessment visits, in order to accept the level of security screening being implemented by them… We have asked that we be allowed to enter certain areas in certain airports within the region, to examine their screening processes to ensure that they are in accordance with what we have set as our standard in Barbados,” she added. (JRT)

Barbados Advocate

Mailing Address:
Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc
Fontabelle, St. Michael, Barbados

Phone: (246) 467-2000
Fax: (246) 434-2020 / (246) 434-1000