With the graduation of 72 new security guards trained in the latest techniques of aviation security, airport security across the country will be beefed up heading into the New Year.
The move brings the Bahamas in compliance with international standards, according to Minister of Transport and Aviation, Glenys Hanna Martin.
“Traditionally our airports throughout our country – and we have many being an archipelago – have been to some extent, even unmanned posts for aircrafts throughout the years,” she disclosed at the graduation ceremony Friday.
“Today we are facing a critical deadline of January 1, which is requiring a heightened security approach, a totally different culture, never before anticipated in our country.”
Minister Hanna Martin mandated the security personnel with “protecting the integrity and safety of our borders.”
For one week an Israeli-based security firm, contracted by the government, trained local security forces on the latest techniques of aviation security and on luggage and checkpoint screening.
The majority of security officers who went through training are stationed on the Family Islands – a fact that did not go unnoticed by Prime Minister Perry Christie.
He noted that professional airport security workers were a necessity if the Bahamas wanted to continue to attract international airlines to bring travelers here.
“The Bahamas government, by now governmental necessity, must find additional resources to ensure that we are able to guarantee – in so far as one can guarantee – safety at airports,” he said.
“This is necessary if we want international flights to come here and bring people in to help us sustain our economy and to help us advance our way of life.”
The Department of Civil Aviation is expected to engage some of the new officers to take part in a “train the trainer” programme, which government officials hope will eliminate the need to hire foreign consultants.
“One thing is we do not want to be a weak link in the chain of airports worldwide. Your task really is to secure and nail down the integrity of our airports nationwide,” said Minister Hanna Martin.
Within the next 12 months the Minister predicted that travelers would find a more secure airport, sophisticated in terms of equipment and personnel.
The government has already implemented a regime that would have a follow-up training oversight of the new security forces while they are stationed in their respective airports. In short order some infrastructural work is expected to take place to put in place the new equipment.
By: Tosheena Robinson-Blair, The Bahama Journal
