Private Security Agencies: An Open offer for Terrorists
By Maesam Khan
United Kingdom is amongst the top allies playing on front foot against terrorism across the world. Government is taking
all possible measures in securing London 2012 from any terrorists’ attacks or security breach. Royal forces, intelligence agencies and police department is working in collaboration with a number of private security agencies to provide ultimate security for the event. Starting from the Olympics Torch Relay to closing ceremony, and then Paralympics, all government and private agencies are facing challenges as UK is playing a vital role on ‘War on Terror’ and the possibility of any terrorist attack cannot be ruled out.
Sources said that there are loads of loop holes in security plan, especially in the arrangements that are made by private security agencies. We have got a list of private agencies which are hiring and deploying security guards that are not properly trained to tackle any incident. These agencies are just making money out of this event by hiring non-professional staff and paying them less than minimum wage rate but getting the maximum from the government. A survey reveals that a huge number of security personnel are not eligible to work in UK, many of them are overstayed and there are some who are illegal immigrants. The only eligibility to become a part of security team for London 2012 is holding of SIA license, no matter whether the personnel has got the right to stay and work in UK or not. This is really creating opportunities for terrorists to breach the security envelope by entering in this way.
According to one of our correspondent, there were some illegal immigrants deployed on the security of a Home Office in London, which later on were arrested in a random checking. This is really an alarming situation and a wakeup call for all. As this is beyond government agencies to manage this event on their own, private organisations need to come forward to collaborate with more professional and responsible attitude. Government should take proper measures and set standards for the private organizations which are working for this cause.
