With airports being transit points for foreign terrorists to enter a country, it has become quite mandatory to step up security checks and install scanners that effectively sense any source of threat. The EU has proposed full-body scanners to be used in order to check for weapons and explosives strapped to people’s bodies. Though this seems like a sensible move, many have raised concerns about privacy and dignity.

The full body scanners are equivalent to stripping a person bare in order to scan his/her body. This tantamounts to a ‘virtual strip search’, which of course has met with a lot of resistance from many. Germany in particular has called this move as being nonsense and has confirmed it will not support such a move to be enforced in European airports. The Germans may have a point in not supporting the move but it can’t be dismissed as being ‘nonsense’.

Europe has lately been the target of Islamic terrorist agenda and also internal problems such as the Basque separatist problem and the IRA makes it necessary for thorough security checks to be enforced at airports. There can be arguments about privacy being violated and human rights being trampled upon by these security checks. However, there can’t be more violations against human rights and privacy than letting terrorists inside the airports and perhaps into the country. In times like these, it is more important to save lives than beat around the bush.

Via: Reuters