An aerial view of the Port of Felixstowe
In early June, the first US Customs Border Protection (CBP) officers arrived at Felixstowe as part of the UK Customs agreement with the CBP to take part in the Container Security Initiative (CSI). UK officers will be carrying out checks on export goods destined for the USA, working with US officers on risk assessment and target identification. Since the UK must surely be considered a low-risk source of terrorist supplies, logically only a very few consignments will be identified for examination at UK container ports.
This does raise the question of what the port operator and HM Customs do if the US and UK intelligence identify a container deemed to be high risk. Although customs officers and stevedores face the continual risk of detecting a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon, this is normally an unquantified risk and not pre-warned in any way. It is quite different when a shipment has been specifically identified as high risk for terrorist involvement. Port staff are then moving, scanning, opening and possibly unloading high-risk articles with little or no protection. SITPRO is working with port representatives, the Department for Transport and HMCE to ensure contingency plans are in place to cover such risks.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 46, August/September 2003
