USA says airport security controls in Nepal are weak and inadequate. Is it true?
KATHMANDU, March 3: According to the Country Reports on Terrorrism 2021 issued by the US Department of State, Airport security controls in Nepal are weak and inadequate. Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport does not pre screen passengers, and landing data is not entered into any database. Physical security checks of passengers are rudimentary. There is no travel document security, and the airport lacks ultraviolet lights to examine documents. The Special Bureau of the Nepal Police assigns approximately 10 personnel to the airport and approximately 15 officers to its INTERPOL office, which is located at Nepal Police headquarters. The INTERPOL office has no designated personnel at Tribhuvan International Airport, but communication between INTERPOL and airport personnel does occur. INTERPOL notices are acted on and maintained in a database, but passengers are not routinely screened through this database. Security and immigration officials are generally responsive to U.S. requests for information, but often have little information to provide. Is it true?
Jalak Ram Adhikari, the director general of the Department of Immigration maintains that the information is not true. “Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport pre-screen passengers, and landing data is entered into the database these days. I do not know which time the USA is talking about.”
On the USA’s report that passengers are not routinely screened through databases, DIG Posh Raj Pokharel, the spokesperson for the Nepal Police, does not agree with it. “We have mobilized a special bureau, narcotics bureau and other police personnels at the airport. They routinely screen the passengers.”
Likewise, Adhikari also disagrees with the report that non-Nepali international terrorist groups are using Nepal as a transit/staging point or soft target.
Beside these, the officials at the TIA agree that the airport lacks the technology, database and other security related infrastructures as mentioned in the report.
To conclude, Nepal government officials at the TIA and other concerned authorities maintain that it is not what it looks like as mentioned in the Country Reports on Terrorrism 2021 issued by the US Department of State.
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