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TSA to
recruit Sikh youths to screen Sikh passengers
 San
Francisco: Sikh air passengers travelling to the United States will
no longer have to remove their turbans at screening checkpoints.
A revised federal guideline, effective October 27, dictates airport
screeners will no longer “pat down” people wearing religious head
coverings — if the traveller agrees to undergo alternative security
measures.
Officials said such alternatives might include walking through a
machine that detects explosive chemicals. Or wearers could agree to
pat down their own turban, and then have their hands swabbed with a
cloth that is tested for chemical traces.
The authorities also plan to recruit Sikh youths to screen Sikh
passengers.
In August, the Transportation Security Administration, which
oversees the nation’s 43,000 airport screeners, changed its
guidelines and subjected travellers to secondary screening at
security checkpoints if they were wearing head coverings, such as
cowboy hats, berets or turbans. The screenings could have included a
patdown search of the head covering, if the screener found it
necessary. The directive was ostensibly prompted by growing concerns
about improvised explosive devices being smuggled aboard aircraft.
But Sikh and some Muslim groups baulked at the directive.
Sikhs in particular worried that the policy, which left turban
patdowns to the discretion of screeners, would lead to harassment.
Since the policy went into effect, the New York-based national
advocacy group Sikh Coalition reported receiving 82 complaints from
travellers who underwent patdowns, Singh said.
“It’s a creative solution that meets national security interests
without requiring a turban to be touched in an unwelcome way,” said
Amardeep Singh, executive director of the Sikh Coalition.
Parbjot Singh, chairman of the Sikh Coalition, said: “This is a
welcome change and we also appreciate that the TSA has decided to
recruit Sikh youths to meet the language problem. They would screen
Sikhs at airports while respecting their religious sentiments.”
14
November, 2007
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