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Border Patrol Units and Customs Officers in Timor Leste Receive International Border Interdiction Training by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and UNODC



Dili (Timor Leste), 24 October 2014 - UNODC has been supporting Timor Leste in enhancing its border security and strengthening mechanisms to counter border crimes. Timor Leste's borders are vulnerable to an array of border crimes including migrant smuggling, human trafficking, drug trafficking and wildlife and timber trafficking. In order to detect these crimes at border entry points, it is vital that Timor Leste's Border Patrol Unit and customs officers are sufficiently trained to deal with the challenges that arise.

With support from UNODC, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency conducted International Border Interdiction Training for Timor Leste's Border Patrol Unit and customs officers from the 20th of October to the 24th of October in Dili. The training involved 25 participants in total.

As the largest federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency has assisted Timor Leste by sharing information regarding the experiences, lessons learnt and challenges faced by the agency. This is the first time that the U.S. and UNODC have collaborated to conduct training.

The five-day training was aimed at increasing the capacity of border patrol and customs officers to identify suspicious indicators and red flags suggesting the occurrence of a border crime. Participants were trained on how to select and examine passengers, luggage, vehicles and containers at sea ports, airports and land border checkpoints and to identify the occurrence of crimes such as human trafficking and arms and explosives trafficking.