Working With Borderpol

Borderpol is an international organisation whose mission is to promote improved international

borders by working with border security agencies to enhance human mobility whilst at the same

time achieving traveller safety and the improved security of border control systems. Recently,

Charles Stevens, a Borderpol representative and an international expert in Travel Document

Security, delivered an eight module course in Document Security and Document Fraud Detection

to a group of senior officers of the Borders and Coastguard Agency (BCA).

The course covered travel and identity document security, assessment of travellers from a security

and border control perspective and methods of detecting document fraud. Lectures covered a

range of fraud methods encountered at border controls and security check points ranging from

detecting impostors, impersonators using unaltered documents of other people, to the detection

of forgeries, documents that have been tampered with and altered, and detection of counterfeits

and total replications of real documents. The course focussed on demonstrating international

standards for travel documents and in showing the range of document security safeguards that

states can use to secure their documents. It also showed the students how to examine suspect

documents to determine whether they are genuine or not. In addition, the course looked at

equipment and technical tools that can be deployed to detect fraud at the front line controls at any

of our entry control points.

The course was organised with Borderpol by BCA Training Manager Andrew Victor and

participants included Managers and Senior Borders and Coastguard Officers.

Mr Stevens praised the Borders and Coastguard Agency for the professionalism and skill levels of

its staff and said “The Borders and Coastguard Agency officers are committed to developing the

capability of front line staff to combat and detect document fraud while facilitating the speedy

passage of genuine passengers through Gibraltar’s border controls.”

For his part, Andrew Bonfante the Chief Executive of the Borders and Coastguard Agency said “At

the Agency we strive to ensure our officers are trained to the highest of standards in all aspects

which are important to our everyday work. This course is part of a planned and progressive

immigration training programme developed to ensure our officers can provide Gibraltar the best

service possible.”