THE BORDERS & COASTGUARD AGENCY WIN THE BORDERPOL EXCELLENCE IN BORDER MANAGEMENT AWARD

The Borders and Coastguard Agency has won the BORDERPOL Excellence in Border Management Award. The citation reads "for outstanding vision, dedication and commitment to progressive border security and traveller management, at a time of rising challenges in this strategic part of the world." The Agency was nominated for having moved ahead to improve the abilities and skills of its officers in a relatively short period of time by providing thorough training programmes and introducing work policies and protocols, bringing together its functions in a true implementation of integrated border management.

The award was presented at the 4th Borderpol World Congress in The Hague to the agency's Chief Executive Mr Andrew Bonfante, who was accompanied by Mr Joseph Molinari and Mr Aaron Chipol. The presentation took place in front of a very international group of delegates from over 50 countries.

This annual award was won by the Singapore Immigration and Checkpoints Authority last year.

BORDERPOL was established by a group of border and security experts in 2003 with historic ties to the International Border Police Conference [of 1992 to 2012]. It has over the past decade evolved into a global organization linking the interdisciplinary nature of border security, traveller and migration management. It brings together the expertise and management skills of senior professional figures from government, industry and academia to create programs and activities designed to serve the international border security, traveller/migration management community the world over and make international borders smarter and safer. As a non-aligned international organization it is ideally positioned to provide expert independent advice and help on Integrated Border Management, aiming to help stakeholders in the border security community to facilitate legitimate movement of people across borders, whilst enhancing security, protecting human rights and promoting best practice.

Commenting on the award, the Chief Executive of the Borders and Coastguard Agency, Andrew Bonfante said “This truly is the most excellent news for the Agency and indeed Gibraltar; a just reward and international recognition of the hard work every one of my officers has put in over the past four years as we've strived to achieve the standard and level of professionalism we enjoy today; a journey that has not in any way been easy. It is very clear to me that by investing in training and development and the introduction of new protocols we invest in our people and improve the performance of our organisation. This award shows that we are committed to the professional development of our staff and indeed of our organisation and thus can ensure we keep Gibraltar open for business, delivering an effective and efficient service of the high standard expected of us as a professional public body."