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Port security far from shipshape

By Alan Clendenning
The Associated Press

ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI / AP Container ships are seen at the port of Santos, 50 miles south of São Paulo, Brazil. New international safety rules to prevent terrorists from exploiting weak port defenses are forcing South America's largest port and thousands of others around the world to beef up security.

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Without opening the containers, it would take an X-ray or radiation detectors to reveal what's truly inside. Those are two of several screening measures scheduled to start July 1 to prevent terrorists from shipping explosives, guns or other deadly materials, although only one in 10 ports around the world has met the requirements so far.

Santos port officials say their security plan will be approved before July 1. But it will take months to implement, including constructing miles of higher fences, installing an electronic identification system for 20,000 people who pass through the port's 60 entrances daily, and putting up a closed-circuit monitoring system with nearly 500 cameras.

Now, small ferries motor near enormous freighters taking on stacks of containers as security guards give paperwork cursory checks. Getting inside the port and close to docked ships isn't hard, a factor that experts say could make it an inviting place for terrorists planning to hijack ships or use containers to smuggle weapons of mass destruction to overseas targets.

Trade disruptions?

Failure to comply with the July 1 date imposed by the International Maritime Organization, a U.N. agency, could cause trade problems if countries like the United States turn away or perform lengthy inspections on ships calling at ports that don't meet the new security standards.

What ports must do A look at U.N.-imposed anti-terrorism security code that world ports are supposed to comply with by July 1: Evaluate port security to determine whether security risk is normal, medium or high. Threats to be evaluated include access to port and docks, cargo tampering, weapons smuggling, ship hijacking. Draw up port security plan, submit plan to government for approval. Government notifies International Maritime Organization. Make security improvements. Among the requirements, depending on risk: higher fences, improved lighting, closed-circuit TV surveillance, identification systems for workers and others entering port, additional guards and patrols on land and water, visual checks of cargo, scanning of cargo using X-ray or radiation detectors. The Associated Press

Ships heading to the United States from ports that don't comply with the code, for example, could be searched by the U.S. Coast Guard and, in the most extreme cases, be ordered back to sea.

By mid-June, only 654 of the 6,114 ports subject to the international security code — established after pressure by the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — were in compliance.

Chris Austen, chief executive of the British firm Maritime & Underwater Security Consultants, is working with 300 ports, and many are still training workers and ordering equipment such as closed-circuit TVs.

"Many ports only started working on it in May," he said.

Shady scene

Complicating efforts to boost security, ports tend to be dangerous places full of questionable characters and criminal elements.

"You go there at night, and you will be beaten up by gangs," Austen said. "Ports are full of scoundrels."

More than 40 containers, each filled with 21 metric tons of Brazilian coffee, were cleared by customs officials at an inland facility in late 2002 and early 2003 and taken by trucks to Santos for shipment to New Orleans, Rotterdam and other ports. When they were opened, there was only dirt, cement or sand inside matching the weight of the purported coffee.

Police suspect truckers were involved in a scheme to steal the cargo. They identified ringleaders but failed to get convictions.

Inspectors have since stepped up spot checks of cargo leaving Santos, but are opening only about 3 percent of the containers, said Jose Carlos Ramalho, chief of the anti-contraband unit of the Santos customs office.

Security experts say it's impossible for authorities in any country to check all of the millions of containers that travel around the globe — even with expensive scanners that can see inside containers, and radiation detectors to guard against concealment of a radioactive "dirty bomb."

Third-world success varies

Elsewhere around the world, security upgrades are hit and miss:

• Dominican Republic: In Port Haina, the country's largest port, cranes and construction workers are constructing security buildings while technicians measure for the installation of container-sized X-ray machines.

Software experts troubleshoot a computer program that tracks goods coming in and out, while security guards remind workers to show their electronic badges.

• Nigeria: The main port in Lagos, the largest in West Africa, recently acquired mobile container scanners. A high wall surrounds the port, but a reporter wasn't asked for identification before entering.

Shipments of narcotics and guns in and out of the port are common, arranged by criminals who bribe port officials, said Emeka Okoroanyanwu, editor of the Lagos-based Maritime Quarterly trade publication.

Highly organized thieves known as "wharf rats" have such free access to the port that more than 80 percent of the used cars brought into Nigeria on open ships are vandalized so parts can be stolen, said Chika Ezenwe, a licensed cargo clearing agent. "The only ones that are safe are those that come inside containers," he said.

The head of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Adebayo Sarumi, said in a speech in March that Nigeria and neighboring countries had not done enough to meet the security code.

• Indonesia: In the port of Batam, a 45-minute ferry ride from Singapore, almost anyone can walk in with a wave to unarmed guards. Motorcycle taxis roar throughout the port, and street vendors sell food from tiny stalls next to ships unloading cargo. The closest security guards are 400 yards away at the port's main entrance.

Batam did put in a higher fence to meet the security code, and guards are receiving extra training, but port director Sudirman Purwo said it's unlikely the port will meet the July 1 deadline.

"Never 100 percent safe"

Though Brazil is scrambling to make sure its 183 ports have their security plans in place, the government didn't release $32 million in spending to boost security until May.

At Santos, new moves to monitor who gets inside the port will be a significant improvement, said Mariliza Fontes Pereira, who heads the port's compliance task force. Hundreds of additional security guards will scrutinize trucks as they enter, and a radar system eventually will be installed to make sure small boats don't get too close to big ships.

"You'll never be 100 percent safe, but if there are any suspicions about a trucker or his cargo, he won't be able to go to the docks," she said. "The police will be called and his cargo will be checked."

Even before the security rules were established, Santos had tighter security than many other ports in developing countries. Vendors hawking food and international phone cards set up shop just outside the port's gates, but aren't allowed inside. Security guards with digital cameras stop trucks with containers of imports before they leave the port so the truckers can be photographed in front of their rigs' license plates.

Austen, the security expert, said the new security rules shift the emphasis from preventing theft to preventing terrorism.

"Now people are worried about the cargo leaving the port being a threat and the ships themselves being a threat," he said.

Efthimios Mitropoulos, the secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, warned that shipping could be disrupted if ports don't quickly come into compliance. But security experts doubt politicians will want to be blamed for harming the delicate world economy, especially President Bush, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign.

"No one in the shipping business believes that international trade will suddenly shut down," said Jim Hunter, a partner with the Merlin Risks security firm advising two Brazilian ports. "People are hoping as long as you are making a good-faith effort to comply, you won't pay too high of a price for lack of performance."

The Bush administration plans to move cautiously on enforcement.

"If we don't get it right, we end up slowing things down or shutting things down, and that's not what we want," said U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Jolie Shifflet.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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