A week long workshop on Border Fundamentals is currently underway at the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service Regional Training Centre, Nasese, Suva.

The workshop organised by the Australian Border Force in collaboration with Australian High Commission and Revenue and Customs will enable participants from the Pacific region to enhance their skills to protect our borders.

Participants from 13 countries namely Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and American Samoa are attending the workshop.

Revenue and Customs Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Visvanath Das during his opening address stressed on the need to strengthen partnership and collaboration to combat border threats.

“We cannot combat threats at our borders alone. We must work collaboratively, actively seek to share information and look for opportunities to develop relationship with colleagues in the region,” Mr. Das said.

“Managing threats at the Border is a complex and challenging task. We frequently see evidence of our border officers making successful interventions, disrupting organised criminal syndicates individual opportunist seeking to do harm in the Pacific region,” Mr. Das said.

“Each of you have a wonderful opportunity this week to enhance your skills and learn from subject matter experts. We can always benefit by benchmarking and learning from others,” he added.

Mr Das acknowledged the partnership of Australia, Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO) and Pacific Immigration Development Community. 

Australian High Commissioner, Mr. John Freakes expressed similar sentiments.

“In today’s world, having strong border security has never been more important. We know that organised crime syndicates and people traffickers are active in these regions and can take advantage of any vulnerability that they can identify to circumvent our border security measures. And it is only through our strong partnerships and sharing information that we can collectively identify and manage those risks,” Mr. Freakes said.

“At times, you have to manage and carefully balance the competing factors of facilitation versus compliance. You have to make complex judgments and assessments within incredibly short time frames. The intent of this course is to provide you with the skills that will enable you to identify risks and manage threats at your borders,” he added.

The workshop will conclude this Friday (31/5/19).  

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