Immigration Officers Hone Border Protection Skills

Ninety-eight immigration officers are now better equipped to carry out their duties having successfully completed a border protection training course.

The course, held from May 1-13, was the second phase of a training programme organised by the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) in collaboration with the British High Commission and the United States Embassy.

Areas covered include human trafficking, counterterrorism, fraudulent document detection, and imposter detection.

The objective is to assist frontline officers to hone their skills, making them more advanced in detecting human trafficking and fraud, and preventing potential terrorist acts.

Earlier in the year, 64 immigration officers graduated from phase one of the training.

At a graduation ceremony held recently at the Pelican Grill in Montego Bay, Chief Executive Officer of PICA, Andrew Wynter, noted that the training is necessary, as officers need to be equipped with the necessary skills to effectively carry out their work.

“We want to ensure that we allow the right people to come into the island. We cannot do this without having properly trained and equipped officers with the knowledge, experience and intuition to carry out their duties professionally and in a confident way,” he noted.

Director of Immigration of PICA, Ezra Whittock, urged the officers to continue to carry out their duties with professionalism and integrity.

“Let us continue to promote dignified treatment of all individuals, who arrive at our borders in conformity with the law and regulations. Let us continue to promote high professional standards in border security. Let us continue to work with our law enforcement colleagues from other jurisdictions though training development and information sharing,” he noted further.

The graduates received items from the US Embassy to assist them in carrying out their functions. These include portable ultraviolet (UV) lamps, loupes, and quick reference fraudulent travel document pocket guides.