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Body Scanner at KIA will help fight drug menace-Ablakwa
Audrey Agyiri-Inkoom, Ghanadot

Accra, Jan 5, Ghanadot - Following the government’s announcement that a full body scanner is being installed at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to forestall any security breaches at the airport, some human rights activists are already raising moral and human rights concerns on the use of the new technology.

The use of the security equipment at Ghana’s only international Airport has become imperative following a failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, to blow up a North West Airline Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Holland, to Detroit in the United States of America on Christmas day, 25th December, 2009.

After the installation, the equipment is expected to give security officials the opportunity to fairly assess every passenger or persons using the airport.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Information, in an interview on Citi FM revealed that the country procured the equipment long before the Abdulmutallab failed attempt on December 25.

Mr. Okudzeto said officials at KIA have been using the scanners “in some specific sectors of the Airport”; especially in the fight against the drug menace for sometime now.

The new installations will therefore “be an extension to cover all travelers generally.” He said.

The use of the full body scanners in some parts of the world has however raised several moral and human rights issues.

In the UK for example, a 12-month trial of the scanners at Manchester airport disclosed that naked images of passengers including their genitalia and breasts were revealed during the scan search.

Privacy campaigners claim the images created by the machines are so graphic they amount to "virtual strip-searching" and have thus called for safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers involved.

Against the background that the scanners have been in use at the Kotoka International Airport for sometime now, and it is to be extended to all travelers generally, concerns have been raised as to the extent to which the privacy of the passengers searched have been and would be protected.

To him, the NDC government, is aware that the use of the scanners would raise moral issues; but said the national security was in charge to come up with the best decision in the interest of individual travelers and national security.

“We knew that those issues of morality and human rights concerns will come up and that is why the national security has been tasked to look at all these matters.

It is a delicate balance between personal privacy and the security of persons and we all need to admit that over the years we have been losing one comfort or the other at one point in time because we want to make air travel safe.” He said

The Deputy Minister assured Ghanaians that the scanners being installed at the KIA would not reveal graphic images of people’s genitalia etc but would rather give an outline of the person.

“I can assure the good people of this country that a decision will be taken in the best interest considering personal privacy, human rights and national security.”

Ghanadot