Customs and law enforcement officers get training in border control |04 May 2023

The participants in a souvenir photograph

A group of Customs and law enforcement officers recently followed training on how to perform effectively in border control situations.

The April 18-20 training workshop at the Story Hotel at Bel Ombre was organised by the Ozone Unit in the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change & Environment in collaboration with its international partners GIZ PROKLIMA/UNEP.

Delegates included Customs, aviation security and Port Authority security officers in Seychelles.

The workshop was aimed at training these officers to perform effectively in border control situations by ensuring that the relevant laws are enforced at borders and hence play a pivotal role in the enforcement chain, helping to protect citizens and the environment from the increasingly devastating effects of uncontrolled activities and to be able to identify illegal trade at the two main ports of entry in the country, that is the International Airport and Victoria Port.

The training workshop covered relevant trade-related Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), the Montreal Protocol Ozone depleting substances (ODS), Basil Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on international trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Minamata Convention on Mercury, Stockholm Convention that protect human health and environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs), as well as an overview of the Environment Protection Act 2016.

Facilitators of the training comprised a team from the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change & Environment, who are focal persons for this convention. The ministry’s legal officer was also present to give an overview of new national laws and regulations of the environmentally sensitive commodities (ESCs).

On the last day of the training participants worked in groups to address common issues and recommendations.

The participants expressed their gratitude to the organiser and recommended more of such training in the future.

Background

Seychelles continues to ratify/sign different MEAs which are treaties between multiple States and, in some cases regional economic integration organisations such as the European Union to pursue specific objectives aimed at protecting the environment and conserving natural resources.

The intention of the international community to develop a new MEA is often brought about by worldwide concerns about the actual or potential serious impacts of human activities on the Earth's fragile environment and the need to address these through concerted efforts at the global level in order to ensure a safe future for coming generations.

Measures that may be embodied in MEAs include for instance the monitoring and control of production and use of environmentally sensitive items, the restriction or elimination of their production and use, identifying and promoting alternatives, and regulating the way they are disposed of. Regulating the international trade of certain environmentally sensitive items is at the core of the training.

MEAs regulate the transboundary movement of a wide variety of items that Customs or border control officers might encounter in their work. Verifying shipments and their documentation is altogether a complex task and a large responsibility, as is verifying compliance with national laws and taking action when violations occur.

Customs officers and other relevant border control officers are on the frontline of facilitating and monitoring international trade. They are expected to maximise the benefits society can derive from this trade, while at the same time we ask Customs officers and border control officers to limit the risks and threats that such commerce can pose, such as uncontrolled and illegal trade or criminal activities.

For Customs officers and border control officers to do their daily work effectively, they need information and guidance so that they know what to look for, why they are looking for it, what the implications of its uncontrolled or illegal trade are, and whom to contact for more specialised assistance. Such capacity building of Customs officers and border control officers was initiated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and it soon became evident that both illegal and legal trade needed to be considered in a holistic manner by making links, where appropriate, with other environmental Conventions to provide integrated training.

Contributed