Cruise lines respond to damning report on port security
Cruise lines have defended the safety of UK cruise ports after a report was leaked identifying serious security flaws at Southampton.
A confidential report, exposed by The Sun earlier this week, revealed that investigators posing as terrorists managed to sneak in 16 knives, eight imitation bombs and four imitation pistols into port terminals.
According to The Sun, a fake IED (improvised explosive device) was left in a toilet cubicle but was missed by a cleaner.
It said security checks missed weapons concealed by investigators, either taped on their backs or ankles or hidden in luggage.
Investigators using fake IDs were also given access to restricted areas. All nine attempts to get into restricted areas were successful.
The report said the failure rate would have been higher if staff had not been tipped off by management during the operation.
A spokesman for CLIA said: "Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) UK and Ireland and its cruise lines collaborate with Associated British (AB) Ports to ensure the most stringent security measures are imposed at all of the ports where we travel.
"On top of industry-wide security measures, each cruise line has individual, high-level safety measures implemented, which are not made public for security reasons.
"We will continue to work with national, port and local law enforcement authorities to continuously improve security systems, as the safety of passengers and staff is always our top priority."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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