Yemen bolsters airport security – and adheres to Muslim strictures
Growing pressure from European countries lead Yemen to bolster its lax airport security measures; among the new measures are whole-body scanners; because of Muslim sensibilities, female security scanners would watch the images of women passengers’ body images, and male security scanners would observe the images of male passengers
Yemen’s reputation for harboring Islamic militants is well known. Coupled with this is a suspicion that Yemeni airport security is shoddy at best – and one result is that , the United Kingdom has banned all direct flights originating in Yemen and destined for the United Kingdom. The ban has been accompanied by a demand for increased security measures at all Yemeni airports. The prime minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, issued the statement following a Home Office review demonstrating the areas in which Yemeni security could be augmented.
The United Kingdom also hosted a meeting in which representatives from twenty-one countries discussed the rising threat of al- Qaeda, as well as the problems of relaxed security at the airports of certain countries.
Prior to the ban being made public, in the middle of last week, Yemen announced they would be upgrading its airport security measures. Whether on their own accord, or in response to the U.K.’s ban, the Yemeni government has taken a series of steps to bolster air travel security
According to information provided to HSNW by the Yemen Consulate in Washington, D.C., the Yemeni government and airport security authorities have taken several steps to augment airport security procedures. In the past, a visa could have been obtained upon arrival at any of the six Yemeni airports that received international flights. This obvious convenience to Islamic militants has now been addressed by requiring that the visa must be obtained and affixed to the passenger’s passport before being allowed entry into Yemen, or departure from and Yemeni airport. Additionally, the visas can now only be issued at Yemen embassies after consultation with security personnel.
HSNW was also informed that the Yemeni government is in the process of implementing full body scanners at Yemeni airports. When asked how these scanners would impact on Muslim sensibilities regarding privacy, the Yemeni source replied that both men and women would be trained as scanner technicians. If the traveler is a women, a female technician would be responsible to examine the scanned image, and likewise for males. Muslim sensibilities prohibit observation of the images or viewing of individuals in the nude unless a corresponding family member is present to supervise.
