The dangers of airport surveillance

When communications executive Tinu Cherian Abraham landed at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru in the wee hours of March 11 from the US, via Frankfurt, he was greeted by a single long queue of passengers, inching forward slowly.What made him anxious was the amount of time he ended up spending in that queue, at close quarters with other people, which he feels collectively increased all of their risk of exposure to an infection. “With only one queue and officials orally asking passengers about their travel history, apart from the thermal screening, I ended up spending much longer in the queue than I would normally,” says Abraham, who has quarantined himself at home for two weeks, since he spent 24 hours in Frankfurt, on his way back.With the number of countries affected by Covid-19 increasing exponentially, the Indian government issued orders on March 3 to extend thermal screening to all passengers arriving at international airports, earlier restricted to travellers from 12 countries. All passengers landing in India also have submit two self-declaration forms with personal information and details of the countries they had travelled in the last two weeks. This came in the wake of new cases in India detected among those who had recently travelled abroad. So far, nearly 12.29 lakh passengers have been screened at Indian airports, according to the union health ministry. But concerns remain about the risk for passengers once they land, considering they end up standing in line for a while amidst a large number of people, all of whom are international travelers with varying probability of exposure.In response to a query from ET Magazine about the amount of time spent waiting, a spokesperson for Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) said: “…passengers arriving from international destinations are likely to spend an additional 10-15 minutes due to the scanning requirement instituted by the state health organisation.” But Abraham says he spent close to an hour. One way to reduce this risk, he suggests, could be to have multiple queues for international passengers once they land, just like at immigration counters.Airports say they are taking additional precautionary measures for both passengers and for staff. The BIAL spokesperson says measures include keeping alcohol-based sanitisers at several locations and conducting awareness campaigns among employees. A Delhi International Airport official told The Times of India last week that hand sanitisers had been placed across the airport as well as posters with do’s and don’ts, apart from providing staff with protective equipment.Meanwhile, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic spreading, passenger traffic has been dropping drastically at airports — up to 50% in the case of Bangalore’s Kempegowda International Airport, which normally sees daily passenger traffic of 14,000-15,000. With visa and other travel curbs increasing, airports are bracing for a further dip.

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