Flying to UK? Be ready for ‘naked’ search

London: Those transiting Heathrow airport on their way to the US will have to accept full body scans as the price of air travel, bringing back memories of the humiliation of 1979 when Indian women entering the UK as would-be brides were given “virginity checks”.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today ordered body scanners to be introduced at British airports as quickly as possible to prevent a recurrence of the near disaster when a young Nigerian attempted to blow up an American airliner with explosives strapped to his thighs.
“Transit passengers will also be checked as well as transfer passengers,” Brown said today.
To go through a body scanner is like being “strip searched”, critics have said, adding that nothing is left to the imagination. It has been reported, however, that Indian intelligence has recommended that body scanners be introduced at airports in India as well.
While Air India uses Heathrow as its hub, Jet Airways passengers transit Brussels for destinations in Europe and beyond. Transit passengers will be made to go through body scanners before catching their connecting flight.
There are security experts who say that the body scanners are not enough and want passenger checks to be made even more intrusive but for the time being in the wake of the Detroit incident, any concerns about privacy are being put to one side.
Many women — especially Muslim women from many parts of the world — will feel their privacy is being violated, which explains why some technical adjustments may be made to ensure “naked” does not quite mean “naked”. However, the scanners can see through clothes and would be pointless if they couldn’t. But the scanners cannot detect anything hidden inside the body.
04/01/10 Amit Roy/The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Foreign Jan 2010, Safety Jan 2010