Secretariat of the Inter-American Committee against terrorism conducts Security Training in Saint Lucia
ST. LUCIA – A training initiative to enhance the capacity of St. Lucia’s air and sea ports, in support of the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup, is set to begin here Monday 22nd January 2007.
The week long activity to be held at the School of Continuing Studies of the University Centre on the Morne, is being conducted by the Secretariat of the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism (CICTE).
Organisation of American States Representative to St. Lucia Paul Spencer says the CICTE Security Border Patrol Training, is being pursued through funding and technical assistance from the United States Department of Homeland Security.
“As you know many of the visitors who will be coming for World Cup will be either US nationals, or will be originating their travel in the United States, so therefore the United States has a vested interest in ensuring the ports and sea ports in the Caribbean, which are used by US Carriers, boat shipping as well as airlines are well protected,” said Spencer.
The training, he says, was preceded by a thorough security assessment of the island’s major ports of entry. The information gathered from the assessment conducted by a two-man team in December, according to Spencer, was used to formulate the training program.
“Regrettably they weren’t able to visit the yachting facility ports but we think the information they were able to garner was sufficient for them to design a training program for customs, immigration and law enforcement personnel currently employed at air and sea port in St. Lucia, the OAS official said.
The training, he says, is not exclusive to customs, immigration and law enforcement personnel, but has also been extended to persons and sectors that have an interest in port operations on the island.
