Thats's one of the drawbacks of sub-contracting security job (like checking for so-called "airside passes") to private security firms (the above-named Procius)
Regarding professionnalism of police forces, for sure the country from the thread subject usually looks down to other country forces and policies with contempt and dedain. They just should look at themselves a little bit more (consider the Rochester story - dozens of young girls abused - where police action was ristrained and cancelled for years, for fear of offending and pointing the finger to "some" communities...)
Now regarding "checking backgrounds" that's a very long and costly process, of course necessary for some positions.
When hearing that CC here are subject to those "background checks" do you really think those ME Airlines have the assets to do it ? that's going to be usually a simple Google check, and yes, if the country of origin is kind enough to provide a criminal record, that's going to double the previous Google check - and then we go for the job, we are just airlines, not a military force dealing with nuclear bombs, where believe me, background checks are much more professionnal...
In a lot of other countries, airside passes are not issued by a private security firm.