Australian maritime ID cards under the scanner

More than 120 port workers have been denied maritime security identification cards to work in Australian ports because of criminal backgrounds, The Australian reported Friday.



Last year, Australia implemented a system where dockworkers need ID cards to be allowed to work in ports. But a report by the newspaper earlier this week suggested that the screening process for the system was too lax.



Not all crimes necessarily prohibit dockworkers from attaining the ID card -- only certain offenses like treason, espionage, transnational crime or trafficking of commercial quantities of drugs would lead to ineligibility.



The report alerted Australian Customs, and on Thursday, the country's Department of Infrastructure released figures saying that of the more than 110,000 active maritime security cards issues, 2 percent were given to those convicted of crimes, albeit those which don't fall under the above categories.



Customs authorities warned that the screening process for people employed at Australia's docks was dangerously lax and that a 'substantial' number of port workers with criminal links could be helping organized crime groups import drugs and other illicit goods, the newspaper reported.



Maritime Union of Australia official Dean Summers told The Australian that there was no widespread criminality on the docks, and said Australian port workers were subject to rigorous and invasive security and background checks.

Source: American Shipper