Security fears over UK airport's foreign workers
20.01.07
Foreign nationals are working at British airports without rigorous checks being done into their backgrounds, the Manchester Evening News reports.
All applicants for jobs have to undergo a five-year criminal records check before they can get an airport security pass. But these checks, carried out by the Criminal Record Bureau, only cover offences committed in Britain over that period and would fail to uncover any committed abroad. This means there could be staff working for airports and airport contractors with `hidden' convictions such as robbery, theft, assault or even sex offences.
A total of 19,821 people work on the Manchester Airport site, including 1,089 foreign nationals. It is understood that bosses at Manchester Airport have raised concerns about the issue with the Department for Transport, but have been told the checks form only one part of a 'complex web' of effective security measures.
North west Euro MP Sir Robert Atkins, a former government transport minister, wrote to aviation minister Gillian Merron about the issue after he visited Manchester Airport to meet managers and review security arrangements last year. His letter said certain EU member states, mainly from the former Eastern Bloc, were apparently not making any personal data about their citizens available to the airport or its contractors.
He said he had received a 'pathetic response' from the minister over the issue, which he felt was 'a disgrace'. The minister's reply said the department was not aware of the problems Manchester Airport 'was experiencing in obtaining data from certain EU member states'.
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said: 'The government has assured us that criminal record checks are only one part of a complex web of security, including full-body and x-ray searches for any staff working airside, and that the security checks covering airport employees are effective taken in their entirety.'
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