No full-body scanners at airport for the time being

The controversial full-body scanners would not be used at Malta International Airport for the time being, a company spokesman confirmed.

The EU this week formally adopted rules allowing the use of full-body security scanners at European airports.

The new legislation will enter into force in mid-December and, for health reasons, only scanners that do not use ionising radiation – X-ray technology – will be authorised.

An MIA spokesman said: “Seeing that airport security standards for passenger screening meets international and regional requirements, which are in place in all EU airports, the company is not considering the introduction of body scanning technology at this stage.”

In Malta, body-scanning technology for security purposes falls under the remit of the Home Affairs Ministry, acting as a regulator.

The latest technology has only been introduced in a few airports in member states but its use is expected to increase substantially now that the EU has given its green light.

The very expensive and full-proof technology has proved controversial particularly because of privacy issues. It provides nude images of the persons being scanned and, for this reason, a number of legal provisions have been made to protect one’s privacy.

The rules lay down that persons monitoring the images must be in a separate room, faces must be blurred and images must not be kept.

In the long term the idea is to only use scanners that give matchstick images. However, this will have to wait until the technology is available on a wider scale.

The rules give airports the right to decide whether to use the new technology or not.

The voluntary concept will also be adopted in relation to passengers who can still refuse to submit to a full-body scan. In this case, they will have to accept alternative detection methods, such as manual searches.

Until now, body scanners at EU airports were only authorised for testing purposes. Among the countries testing full-body scanners were the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany and Finland.

The European Commission said tests received a “very positive” reaction from passengers.