KINGSTON, Jamaica – Twenty four immigration officers, from the English-speaking Caribbean, have completed the first two-week Regional Border Management Training Course to be conducted at the Caribbean Regional Drug Law Enforcement Training Centre (REDTRAC), Twickenham Park, St. Catherine.
The closing ceremony was held Friday (September 4) at the centre. It was the first time that a regional border management course was being held in the region. It was coordinated by the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD) and the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS).
Jamaica’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Major Richard Reese, speaking at the function, described the “standardization and harmonization” course as critical.
“It is indeed critical to ensure that we have best practices but, more particularly, in our service delivery that we ensure consistency and quality,” he said.
The course was aimed at providing training and education that will: promote better understanding of issues pertaining to border security management; improve the knowledge and skills of immigration officers, regarding the level of service delivery while securing regional borders; and develop trainers to train frontline officers at air and seaports.
Among the areas covered were: the evolving role and functions of the immigration service; immigration functionality in the regional security framework; the regional security environment; regional border intelligence; service delivery; change management; and profiling and interviewing techniques.
Guest speaker at the function, Executive Director of CITRAD, Jennifer Astaphan, said the course was a true example of regional and south-south cooperation.
She added that it showed that the region has the ability to share lessons, and to come together and do things without drawing on north-south cooperation.
She said that the trainees will be responsible for training other frontline officers, when they return to work. She implored them to put into practice what they had learnt, so that the level of service offered by immigration officers, across the region, will be greatly improved in the near future.
“You are to be astute in you discernment of those individuals who seek to take advantage of free movement for their nefarious purposes, since their activities can undermine the democracies we hold so dear in the region,” she charged the immigration officers.
