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As many of you know I have an ileostomy and have a bag attached to my body that replaces my colon. In the three years since I had the operation we have flown quite a bit. Only once have I ever been asked a ridiculous question after being scanned. After stepping through the scanner at SYD international a security guy asked me what it was and when I said it was an ileostomy bag he asked me to take it off! Luckily a supervisor was working at the adjacent line, overheard the request, and raced around saying "no" to the agent. I'd already said you really don't want me to do that but the supervisor was great and explained to the agent what I had and to me that the agent was very new.
I have absolutely no problem with the explosives test being carried out each time I enter an airport. I have something attached to me that needs to be examined. I want to be safe just like everyone else does. I'm also ok with a pat down and haven't ever asked to have it done in a private room.
Fast forward to about six weeks ago and Facebook stoma groups started lighting up with scary stories of people being asked to show their bags after they've stepped through the scanner and/or being taken to rooms and asked to lift up dresses and shirts. Some of the stories I've read are humiliating, some worrying - a pre-teen child being taken to a room to be examined before their mother could get through screening to accompany them. The majority of stories were about BNE domestic, and some from MEL.
I volunteer for the QLD Stoma Association and I was asked to go with our manager out to BNE to meet with BAC staff to discuss this recent worrying uptick in invasive body searches. Another ostomate was with us. She had been asked to remove her bag while stood just past the scanner at MEL dom. A supervisor was called and even they continued with the ridiculous request. S went to a room, lifted up her dress and showed them her appliance. A complaint to MEL was made with an apology received with an assurance to uptrain staff.
We meet with a group of people who worked across different areas. The head of ISS that manage the screening was there along with compliance managers, corporate communications and process people.
We wanted to know what had changed and the answer was really not much. There had been a rewrite of the procedure for when an unidentified item appears on someone's body during screening but the process really hadn't changed.
It still said - identify possible concealment. Ask person what it is (I always say I have a bag before I step in). Ask customer if they can perform an explosives swab. If negative customer 'can' also be asked if they would permit a pat down (not mandatory/at screeners discretion). Customer should be offered option of this taking place in a private room, only ever with agent of same sex.
This is where it had literally gone to cough. Agents were for some reason ignoring the negative result and demanding pat downs and even worse demanding people show their bags. For many this is a humiliating experience.
We discussed lots of things. I highlighted that it was clear that for the majority of agents English was not their first language. I wanted to know if they had been trained to know what the different bags were (ileostomy, colostomy, urostomy). Nope. Nothing in training showed examples.
I worked for years with teams in India, some who came to Melbourne to work with us, who had to be trained to work how we worked. What was ok to say or do at home was not ok here. I was concerned that the screening agents had brought their cultural biases and norms to a situation that required sensitivity and discretion.
It was a very open and frank discussion. I brought examples of different bags and support belts. It was clear noone in the group had ever seen them before.
There was acknowledgement that agents needed urgent retraining. They had to stop going from something identified to taking sometime to a room and asking them to disrobe. They had to go back to perform swab, negative result, allow customer to enter the terminal.
I offered to attend training sessions for new intakes to show them what a bag is it looks like this is going to be taken up. By the sounds of things I'll also do test walk throughs of the different screening points at BNE domestic, and maybe international, to see how the agents react to someone with a bag. I made a suggestion that signage should be updated near the body scanners to ask customers to advise if they have an appliance attached to their body. I also said that giving the agents discretion to make their own decisions opened the door for wrong decisions being made.
Has anyone heard of, or witnessed, someone who has had a poor experience at security screening (BNE especially) due to them having a bag of some sort? Please let me know so this can be passed on to our contacts. I'll provide a further updated once I've attended some training.
I have absolutely no problem with the explosives test being carried out each time I enter an airport. I have something attached to me that needs to be examined. I want to be safe just like everyone else does. I'm also ok with a pat down and haven't ever asked to have it done in a private room.
Fast forward to about six weeks ago and Facebook stoma groups started lighting up with scary stories of people being asked to show their bags after they've stepped through the scanner and/or being taken to rooms and asked to lift up dresses and shirts. Some of the stories I've read are humiliating, some worrying - a pre-teen child being taken to a room to be examined before their mother could get through screening to accompany them. The majority of stories were about BNE domestic, and some from MEL.
I volunteer for the QLD Stoma Association and I was asked to go with our manager out to BNE to meet with BAC staff to discuss this recent worrying uptick in invasive body searches. Another ostomate was with us. She had been asked to remove her bag while stood just past the scanner at MEL dom. A supervisor was called and even they continued with the ridiculous request. S went to a room, lifted up her dress and showed them her appliance. A complaint to MEL was made with an apology received with an assurance to uptrain staff.
We meet with a group of people who worked across different areas. The head of ISS that manage the screening was there along with compliance managers, corporate communications and process people.
We wanted to know what had changed and the answer was really not much. There had been a rewrite of the procedure for when an unidentified item appears on someone's body during screening but the process really hadn't changed.
It still said - identify possible concealment. Ask person what it is (I always say I have a bag before I step in). Ask customer if they can perform an explosives swab. If negative customer 'can' also be asked if they would permit a pat down (not mandatory/at screeners discretion). Customer should be offered option of this taking place in a private room, only ever with agent of same sex.
This is where it had literally gone to cough. Agents were for some reason ignoring the negative result and demanding pat downs and even worse demanding people show their bags. For many this is a humiliating experience.
We discussed lots of things. I highlighted that it was clear that for the majority of agents English was not their first language. I wanted to know if they had been trained to know what the different bags were (ileostomy, colostomy, urostomy). Nope. Nothing in training showed examples.
I worked for years with teams in India, some who came to Melbourne to work with us, who had to be trained to work how we worked. What was ok to say or do at home was not ok here. I was concerned that the screening agents had brought their cultural biases and norms to a situation that required sensitivity and discretion.
It was a very open and frank discussion. I brought examples of different bags and support belts. It was clear noone in the group had ever seen them before.
There was acknowledgement that agents needed urgent retraining. They had to stop going from something identified to taking sometime to a room and asking them to disrobe. They had to go back to perform swab, negative result, allow customer to enter the terminal.
I offered to attend training sessions for new intakes to show them what a bag is it looks like this is going to be taken up. By the sounds of things I'll also do test walk throughs of the different screening points at BNE domestic, and maybe international, to see how the agents react to someone with a bag. I made a suggestion that signage should be updated near the body scanners to ask customers to advise if they have an appliance attached to their body. I also said that giving the agents discretion to make their own decisions opened the door for wrong decisions being made.
Has anyone heard of, or witnessed, someone who has had a poor experience at security screening (BNE especially) due to them having a bag of some sort? Please let me know so this can be passed on to our contacts. I'll provide a further updated once I've attended some training.
