UK team looking into security steps

An UK expert team yesterday started examining the measures taken to improve the security at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

“A British team of experts is already in Dhaka to check the security measures at our airport here. We have taken different steps for the improvement of the airport security,” Rashed Khan Menon, civil aviation and tourism minister, told The Daily Star over the phone yesterday.

He, however, declined to comment on details like when the team arrived or how many members it had.

The team is visiting Bangladesh amid fears that local exporter would lose business after the UK government banned direct cargo from Dhaka to the UK on Wednesday.

The UK government imposed the ban citing poor cargo security measures at the Shahjalal International Airport.

Yesterday, an official of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab), wishing not to be named, said the experts would examine the “validation” of the civil aviation authority and Bangladesh Biman during their inspection.

The validator is a computer programme which mainly assesses an action, decision, plan, or transaction to establish that it is correct, complete, and being implemented as intended, and also delivering the intended outcome.

The audit might be conducted under the European Union's ACC3 regulations, added the official.

Under the ACC3, introduced on February 1 of 2012, all air carriers carrying cargo or mail from non-EU countries to the EU must be registered as an “Air Cargo or Mail Carrier” operating into the EU from a Third Country Airport (ACC3) by an EU member state based on a valid security programme.

ACC3s must ensure that all cargo and mail carried to the EU is physically screened or have come from a secured supply chain which is EU aviation security validated.

For each carrier, ACC3 validation is required for an airport which serves as the Last Point of Departure (LPD) for flights into the EU, according to the EU regulations.

Local exporters said export of goods from Dhaka to the UK has started to face trouble since Thursday.

The UK-bound air carriers from Dhaka have already started re-screening of the cargo in third country airports as per the rules of the ban on direct cargo from Dhaka, they said.

“Such re-screenings at a third country airport takes more time and it might damage perishable goods. The carriers might charge higher transportation fare in future for the re-screening, if the ban prolonged,” said Mohammed Monsur, general secretary of Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables and Allied Products Exporters Association.

“The vegetables and other perishable goods exporters would be the worst sufferers due to the latest move by the UK government,” he said.

Apart from apparel, Bangladesh also export items like carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, spinach, cauliflowers, papayas, pumpkins, bottle gourds, cabbages, coriander leaves, ladies fingers, cucumbers, bitter gourds, beans, jute leaves, radishes, dry fish, fish, and meat to other countries. The UK is a major market for them.

The local companies also export agro-processed packaged food to the UK.

Mahbubul Anam, president of Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association, also said the exporters would have to face trouble due to the physical screening of cargo.

Siddiqur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said, “We want immediate solution to the problem as the UK is also a major market for our garment business. In emergency cases, we send garment items to the UK on flights. The ban on direct flights will hamper our business.”

Bangladesh exported garment items worth $3.23 billion in 2014-15 fiscal year to the UK, registering a 21.28 percent growth from the previous year, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau.

Biman is set to lose business of around Tk 100 crore a year if the ban on direct cargo from Dhaka to the UK continued.

There could be more bad news for the carrier as the UK might ban direct passenger flights from Dhaka as well, if Bangladesh failed to start meeting some international security requirements by March 31, officials in the civil aviation ministry has said recently.

Biman is the only carrier that operates Dhaka-London direct flights. The carrier has four flights a week and until Wednesday it carried cargo on those flights.