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EU to introduce 'virtual strip search' at airports

Digital body scanners that leave little to the imagination will be used by airport security on passengers travelling across the European Union within two years.

  • The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2008
  • Published: 00:07 October 2, 2008
  • Gulf News

London: Digital body scanners that leave little to the imagination will be used by airport security on passengers travelling across the European Union within two years.

According to a draft European Commission regulation, seen by reporters, the new millimetre wave imaging scanners are to be used "individually or in combination, as a primary or secondary means and under defined conditions" to provide a "virtual strip search" of travellers. The new EU regulation, which will be binding on Britain, is intended to enter into force across the continent by the end of April 2010.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, stressed that while body scanners may be an effective security tool "the implementation must be carried out by the British government in a proportionate manner, based on UK security requirements rather than the dictates of Brussels." He added: "Ministers need to explain publicly and transparently what these proposals are and why they are suitable to the UK."

The new technology, which creates an image of an unclothed body, was tested on a voluntary basis at Heathrow's Terminal 4, but the trial has now been discontinued.

Three-dimensional

Air passengers scanned by the new technology walk into a large booth where electromagnetic waves are beamed on to their body to create a virtual three-dimensional "naked" image from reflected energy. Many travellers have been alarmed by the graphic nature of the black and white images body scanners generate - including revealing outlines of genitalia - raising concerns about privacy.

Gareth Crossman, the director of policy at the human rights organisation Liberty, said: "I don't think people are aware of what these scanners can do and how demeaning it is to have your body on display. Heathrow was right to discontinue their use and they should not be used in Britain except as an alternative to strip searches."

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