Local immigration officers attend border control training |19 March 2018

Local immigration officers recently attended a two-day training held in collaboration with the British high commission and UK Immigration Enforcement Office.

The workshop, held on March 7 and 8, 2018 was facilitated by Nadia Bremner, of the United Kingdom’s Immigration Enforcement Office.

It covered pertinent topics with the purpose of enhancing the officers’ skills in specific aspects of immigration law enforcement which included passenger assessment techniques, facilitation of identification in human trafficking, identification and document examination as well as visa and transit rules.

The training coincided with the return of British Airways flights to Seychelles and has also provided the immigration officers with better expertise to handle various forms of threats faced at border controls. 

Over the past few years, Seychelles has gained a high level of prominence in the world of tourism resulting in a remarkable increase in the number of airlines that operate in the country.

Visitor arrivals have soared from slightly more than 130,000 at the turn of the century to reach almost 350,000 as at the end of 2017, representing an increase of almost 220%.

As the number of visitors continue to rise, it is crucial to improve the methods of monitoring and vigilance by the immigration on a constant basis.

The Minister for Employment, Immigration and Civil Status, Myriam Telemaque and the British high commissioner Caron Röhsler attended the closing ceremony of the training.

With this collaboration between the department of immigration and the British high commission, hopefully similar and more targeted training will be provided on a regular basis.