Passenger screening porous at Chennai airport – Times of India

CHENNAI: Though the state government said that screening of international passengers is being stepped up at the airport, the system is not foolproof.
Domestic passengers touching down are yet to be screened. Many international flyers who land at bigger gateway airports such as Mumbai and New Delhi take domestic flights to reach Chennai. Also, immigration authorities have no system to know a passenger’s travel history save a self-declaration form.
When an immigration officer swipes a passport in the system, he or she gets to know about the airport from where the passenger had boarded a flight to Chennai. For example, if a passenger has boarded a flight from Rome via Dubai, the immigration will see only the Dubai-Chennai leg. Even if the passenger flies the same airline and transits via an airport, details of the transit airport will reflect in the system. However, in this case, officials can find out about the origin airport by looking at the boarding pass.
“The immigration staff has to go through the pages of the passport to find out the travel details. But an officer will not have that much time while clearing passengers,” said an airport official.
As per the current practice, the airport health office staff collect self-declaration forms and do a thermal scanning. The immigration officer asks the passenger details of countries visited. “If a passenger decides to suppress information, it can be done. But, if the passenger needs to be tracked, all details can be extracted,” said an official.
Officials said screening domestic arrivals will need manpower and the airport health office managed by the Union ministry of health is not equipped to handle the 10,000 to 15,000 passengers.