Port security or port access – the dilemma

23 Mar 2011 - By Mark Hankey - Industry Blog

Recently I had to go for a meeting within the perimeter of one of the largest ports in the UAE.  Not being a local I naturally arrived in the back of a taxi.  At the main gate my vehicle was stopped and I was asked by a smart security guard for my pass – when I explained that I was here for a meeting he told my driver to park up inside the port limits, and instructed me to walk back to the pass office to get the relevant paperwork.

Being a law-abiding chap I did just that and walked in to the busy security hut and stated my business.  Following a cursory check of my passport I received a stamped pass, which I then took back to the taxi and was on my way. 

All sounds normal so far – well that may be the case, but what the security team failed to do was actually check that I bothered to get a pass whilst in the busy security hut.  I could have simply walked in, waited a few minutes and walked out again and no-one would have been any the wiser. 

This port must have literally thousands of people coming and going every day; it had state-of-the-art CCTV cameras and what looked like very robust fencing and gate controls.  Such security is all well and good but, as my experience showed, a simple breakdown in process management could cause a serious security breach. 

In the maritime community time is money and any implementation of security controls must be in line with relevant legislation, commensurate to the perceived threat, yet efficient enough to facilitate swift and easy access to the terminal in question. All of this should be in place as a matter of course, but one should never forget to check the basics!

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