Airport security

All those individuals who wrote in to The Times offering all manner of advice on how to beat the thievery that is taking place at Malta International Airport are all missing the point. And the MIA is in blind denial. There appears to exist a chronic deficiency in MIA's security system.

Several months ago two pairs of illegal immigrants who landed on flights from Istanbul on two separate occasions, and who were on their way with other deplaning passengers to immigration and Customs control, managed to scale the perimeter fence and presumably link up with whoever was waiting for them on the other side. No word on whether any or all of them have ever been apprehended.

All should remember that there is ample time and opportunity for the luggage thieves to pick over the hundreds of pieces of luggage at will since most airlines require a check-in time of two hours prior to departure. By comparison, a passenger on a Malta to Manchester flight whose luggage was broken into swears that all passengers had their luggage in hand within 15 minutes of their plane reaching the gate at Manchester Airport.

By the way, who is making a profit from that ingenious contraption of a shrink-wrapping machine? If a sturdy lock can be picked, or a padlock snapped off, then what is mere shrink-wrap to a sharp blade? Let's get serious. Tampering with luggage which is in a presumably secure area is cause for alarm since all manner of items can be removed and others placed inside.

Why haven't we heard of anyone being apprehended yet? A simple sting operation would have done the trick.