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Original poster

Strip search of infants

28 replies

balletmoo · 29/07/2012 21:07

Hi there,

Has anyone here encountered a similar experience? A family friend recently travelled through a uk airport and their 3 year old was subjected to a strip search. And the mother was threatened with arrest for obstruction if she objected or interferred.

Anyone out there work for UKBA? Is that right?? I'm a bit shocked! Can't be right, can it??

OP posts:
bruxeur · 29/07/2012 21:07

3-year-olds aren't infants. Unnecessarily dramatic.

Rubirosa · 29/07/2012 21:11

I'm not sure that strip searching a 3 year old is any less "dramatic" than strip searching an infant bruxeur!

I can't believe it is right either OP.

mnistooaddictive · 29/07/2012 21:11

I could be wrong, but I think it is an established terrorist method to hide things on children. Security has to be taken seriously as unpleasant as it is.

Original poster
balletmoo · 29/07/2012 21:12

Ok, my apologies. Wasn't intending to be dramatic or controversial. I'm just curious whether this is standard procedure these days. Certainly didn't mean to come across as dramatic...

OP posts:
Fayrazzled · 29/07/2012 21:15

I'd call a 3 year old an infant. Infants go up to 7 in an infant school. And I wouldn't be happy about mine being subjected to a strip search. So not unnecessarily dramatic in my book, if that's what happened.

Original poster
balletmoo · 29/07/2012 21:19

Well I've not spoken to the friend myself, hence the vague info in my op. i have no idea if there were scanner alarms going iff, for example.

I guess I am just curious if this is something i might expect to encounter when travelling with my toddler, rather than posting to shock...

OP posts:
bruxeur · 29/07/2012 21:22

Neonate from birth to one month, then infant till one year old, child thereafter. Don't people go to school any more?

Rubirosa · 29/07/2012 21:24

Yep, infant school. Aged 4.

johnnycomelurky · 29/07/2012 21:24

I would imagine that infants and children are as liable to be searched as anyone. If they were never searched then it is entirely conceivable they could/would be used to smuggle things onto flights. If child is in nappies, a pat down isn't going to be that effective.

Would be interesting to hear circumstances. DS was 7 months on our last international flight and wasn't searched.

bruxeur · 29/07/2012 21:30

Wonderfully British pride in ignorance. Well done!

DowagersHump · 29/07/2012 21:42

Well, presumably the mother was able to be there and assist with the removal of clothing. So it isn't quite as awful as it sounds.

I don't see why children shouldn't be subject to the same indignities as the rest of us tbh

BackforGood · 29/07/2012 21:45

Regardless of what word you use to describe the child....
Presumably there was some reason why they felt they needed to search her thoroughly. As you say yourself, you don't have all the facts, even from one perspective, and, as others have said, at the end of the day, if it is known security don't check babies / toddlers / children, then where do you think smugglers are going to conceal anything they don't want the security people to find ?

RunningOutOfIdeas · 29/07/2012 21:45

DD is 4 and has done 3 long haul trips and 2 shorter ones (16 flights in total). She has never been searched nor do I know of this happening to any other child. So I think what happened to your friend is very rare and must have been triggered by something suspicious.

DowagersHump · 29/07/2012 21:47

A shifty-looking 3YO I reckon, Running Wink

SauvignonBlanche · 29/07/2012 21:47

Nobody is randomly strip searched, there must have been some reason for it?

IwishIwasinLondon · 29/07/2012 21:47

Our 2 dc have flown short haul numerous times and never been subjected to a strip search, and neither have DH and I for that matter.

I find it very odd tbh.

kilmuir · 29/07/2012 21:48

What about the body scanners

scaredymcnamechange · 29/07/2012 21:48

Excellent derailmnent there Bruxeur.
Not sure why?

herethereandeverywhere · 29/07/2012 22:05

In security for a domestic flight recently my 12 week old was swabbed (for traces of explosives I assume). I had to hold her out at arms length whilst they rubbed the stick over her before slotting it in their machine.

It really shocked me, virtually to tears. Not because of the way we were treated or any affront that me and my baby were "chosen" (the staff were professional and just doing their job) but because she has been born into a world where it's realistic to assume someone might use their own baby to create a bomb Sad.

futureunknown · 29/07/2012 22:06

We fly lots as do friends and have never known anyone to be strip searched. The authorities must have seen something they didn't like the look of.

sashh · 30/07/2012 04:56

Was the three year old in a nappy? That could have trigered it, if the child looked too old to be in a nappy.

A strip search should never leave a person naked, they search top, then bottom or the other way round.

Maybe your friend looked like Samantha Lewthwaite?

Did your friend ask why they did a strip search?

Florin · 30/07/2012 05:09

My 4 week old was swabbed when we flew last week have to admit didn't worry me. Prefer they checked and we were all safe (ds slept through it but they did it while in his car seat)
There must have been something suspicious about 3 year old I have never heard of this being done before.

Graciescotland · 30/07/2012 06:12

DS, nearly two, has flown on about thirty flights long and short haul and has never had anything more than a cursory pat down. I've often found the lack of security with regard to him/ buggy surprising.

I've always been asked permission before they touched my child and found border staff both in the UK and over the world to be very sweet to DS so it's not an upsetting experience. Was your friend being a bit arsey for them to threaten her with obstruction? I do agree with the rest of the posters that there would of had to have been something odd about the child/ family or an alert on for them to want to search a child so thoroughly.

MORCAPS · 31/07/2012 08:40

You can thank every bastard who thought it would be a good idea to try and get a bomb on a plane. If said bastards don't give a fuck about your babies I can't imagine they care very much about their own.

DS1 gets patted down everytime, I have no idea why. He obviously looks shifty. We too have always been asked for permission.

If they asked him to remove his clothes, I would be fine with that as long as I (or DH) could be present. If that wasn't possible then we would refuse and accept that we wouldn't be getting on the plane and get ready for a great big fight via the courts etc.

Bunbaker · 31/07/2012 11:39

"A shifty-looking 3YO I reckon"

Or a shifty looking adult with the child perhaps? I have been body searched a few times as well (but not strip searched) and am glad that our airports take the safety of airline passengers so seriously.

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