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U.K. Targets Port-Smuggling Risks After Mumbai Terror Attacks |
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Thursday, 12 March 2009 |
 From his harbormaster’s office, Neil Clarke can see every boat sailing into Penzance Harbor on Britain’s southwestern tip. “We’ve got a long coastline with a small amount of people trying to keep an eye on it,” Clarke said.
“Attacks like Mumbai do give us cause for concern.”
More than three
months after India’s Mumbai terror killings, overlapping government
jurisdictions and a focus on airports and public transport have left
weaknesses in Britain’s maritime security. With twice as much coastline
as France, the U.K. is vulnerable to arms smuggling, say terrorism
experts and the government’s own reports.
Prime Minister Gordon
Brown has yet to propose a strategy to oversee unofficial points of
entry. He and predecessor Tony Blair gave precedence to tightening
safety at main airports and transit networks after the Sept. 11 attacks
on the U.S. and the 2005 bombings of London’s buses and Underground.
In
the Nov. 26 attack on India, 10 terrorists sailed into Mumbai on a
dinghy and killed 163 people in a coordinated assault. In the U.K., the
concern is more that arms will be smuggled in through unprotected
landing places.
“It is something we have to watch out for,” said
Franz Lehr, professor at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and
Political Violence at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. “All
copycats need are weapons. Getting hold of an assault rifle and
learning to handle it with ease, that’s the hard part.”
War Support
The
U.K. is a bigger target than its continental European allies because of
its support for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he said.
The
Conservatives, leading opinion polls for a general election due by June
2010, says the government needs to do more given that London, which
sits on the River Thames, is scheduled to host the 2012 Olympics.
“When
you are aware you are not adequately protected or informed, and when
you have taken measures to protect obvious points of entry, you
shouldn’t be sitting on your bottom,” said Pauline Neville-Jones,
Conservative spokeswoman on counterterrorism and a former chair of the
Joint Intelligence Committee that oversees espionage.
The
Conservatives say they want regional maritime police to be integrated
into a national border force and all ports to have routine security
inspections.
More Coastline
France has 3,427 miles (5,500 kilometers) of coast and Italy has 4,634 miles, while the U.K. has more than 11,000 miles.
The
government should ensure that small boats entering territorial waters
are tracked, and should also designate a lead department for maritime
security, said Jason Alderwick, a maritime analyst at London’s
International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The Defense, Home,
Treasury and Transport ministries all play a role in maritime affairs.
The Royal Navy, Revenue and Customs, the Serious Organized Crime Agency
and local police have ships in British waters. The Maritime and
Coastguard Agency coordinates volunteer-operated rescue boats, though
it doesn’t have a crime-fighting mandate, unlike the U.S. Coast Guard.
Permanent
customs cover on U.K. shores ended in 2003, when officers switched to
mobile operations. In the 1980s, lighthouse- keepers were replaced by
automated systems. Harbors are either owned privately, controlled by
cities or run by a trust.
“Maritime security is certainly being
looked at,” Alderwick said. “But are we doing it in an integrated
manner? And who is taking the lead?”
Shadow Form
The Border
Agency, set up in April 2008, combines departments to form a beefed-up
presence at main ports and airports. It is operating in shadow form
until Parliament passes legislation to create a single executive body.
The agency says it has stopped 3,700 weapons from reaching Britain’s
streets.
Border security “has considerably improved in recent
years,” said Alex Carlile, the government’s independent reviewer of
terror legislation, describing the policing of Britain’s shores as “a
formidable task.”
In London, work is ongoing to protect the
Thames, said Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative, adding that a review
is under way to see if more needs to be done. He didn’t provide
details.
“With the buildup to the Olympic Games in 2012, a great
deal of work is taking place to protect London from any potential
threats,” Johnson said in a statement.
The Houses of Parliament,
banks and hotels line the Thames, which has been patrolled by the
security services since 1991. That year, the Irish Republican Army
launched a mortar attack on No. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s
residence.
Sea Arrivals
Still, there are indications maritime
security elsewhere is leaky. The number of illegal immigrants coming
into the U.K. through the Port of Calais in France doubled in two years
to 3,300, Home Office figures show.
In 2007, a judge jailed eight
members of a gang for trying to unload 6.5 million pounds ($9 million)
of cocaine on a Welsh beach, on the U.K.’s western coast, saying the
plot failed only because of bad weather and a problem with the vessel.
“Much
of the coastline is accessible to small vessels, which can be sailed
onto secluded spots to offload illicit commodities before heading to a
harbor or marina to make their journey appear legitimate,” the Serious
Organized Crime Agency said in a June 2008 report that outlines future
threats.
Security Minister Alan West told lawmakers in October
that officials have been trying since last summer to figure out how to
monitor the millions of small-boat movements.
The western
coastline is particularly vulnerable. The shores, studded with remote
beaches and secluded coves, were used by smugglers in the 18th and 19th
centuries.
Harbormaster Clarke said that while mobile teams come
around quite often, he misses the customs officers who used to be just
across the road from his office. They could spot a suspicious boat by
how it sat in the water, he said.
“It’s having the extra pairs of
eyes and people who have experience and know what they are looking
for,” he said. “I do feel that slacking the cover off too much is
causing a weakness.”
Source: Bloomberg
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