Pope Benedict XVI has thrown his weight behind civil rights campaigners and privacy advocates by objecting to the introduction of full-body scanners at international airports.

Speaking at a Vatican meeting over the weekend, the pontiff told aerospace industry figures that, in his opinion, the threat of global terrorism did not warrant intrusions into personal privacy.

Without explicitly mentioning full-body scanners, he tackled the issue of security on flights by saying: “The primary asset to be safeguarded and treasured is the person, in his or her integrity.”

There have been widespread concerns that the new scanners, which see under clothing to produce revealing images of passengers’ bodies, breach privacy rights.

But people who support the technology insist that it offers a vital extra layer of security to the flying public, who have long been subjected to measures such as body pat-downs.

Acknowledging that the threat of terrorism exists at airports, the Pope nonetheless said: “Even in this situation, one must never forget that respecting the primacy of the human person and attention to his or her needs does not make the service less efficient nor penalise economic management.”

Trials of the scanners are now underway at Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport, with the UK government promising to install more machines at all international gateways.

The technology had previously been tested in the UK as early as 2004, but government backing for it accelerated significantly in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terror attack in Detroit. It is also in use at 19 airports across the US, and is being rolled out in Italy and the Netherlands.

© Cheapflights Media

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