Memorandum submitted by UK Border Agency
1. EU Customs Cooperation Working Group (CCWG)—details
about this group: its composition/remit/members etc
This group was established by virtue of a decision
by the Council of Ministers to enhance co-operation between Member
States in the field of Customs law enforcement. It is attended
by customs officials from all Members States and the European
Commission and where appropriate by officials from Europol and
OLAF (European Anti-Fraud Office).
Customs co-operation in criminal matters is influenced
by the Hague Programme for closer co-operation in justice and
home affairs at EU level. The programme's main aim is to make
Europe an area of freedom, security and justice as agreed at the
Tampere EU Summit in 1999. Its measures include customs cooperation,
primarily involving information sharing and ensuring greater civil
and criminal justice co-operation across EU borders.
The work of the group is managed through an overall
action plan overseeing a number of specific projects, including
JCOs—Joint Customs Operations that involve steps such as
anti-smuggling exercises, risk testing and intelligence sharing
at a working level. HMRC and UKBA actively participate in JCOs
and other work of the CCWG where they relate to our priorities
and objectives and there is a clear benefit.
Current examples of cross EU partnership working
relating to cocaine are:
— Working with the World Customs Organisation,
Interpol and the UNODC, EU member States have been strengthening
their controls on flights to Europe from certain Central African
hub airports, targeting people starting their journeys in Africa
as well as those transiting from South America.
— A joint customs and police operation
will be targeting cocaine smuggling to Europe in maritime containers
originating from South and Central America, either directly to
Europe or diverted through West African ports.
Both operations are in their early stages but
we expect short term results to include additional shipments of
cocaine taken out upstream en route to UK and Europe. As well
as any real time intelligence that we can act upon, we expect
evaluations to improve our targeting information and risk profiles.
2. Comparative figures for the percentage
of cocaine being smuggled through airports which is seized didn't
vary much between countries / Member States (in the Netherlands
the Committee were told that the Dutch seized around 30% of all
drugs coming through Schiphol airport, but that in other countries
it was more typically 14%)
Neither SOCA nor UKBA have any reliable data
that allow us to express our seizures as a percentage of drugs
coming through UK airports. Using data from World Customs Organisation
(WCO) Annual Report 2008 we can give comparative data for cocaine
seized by Member States for the period 1 January 2008—31
December 2008. Refer to Appendix 1.
3. Whether ethnicity data are collected, and
if so provide a breakdown of ethnicity of those arrested?
We record ethnicity data on people in relation to:
— "Searches of person" for customs
purposes under section 164 of Customs and Excise Management Act
1979, whether physical or by use of x-rays or other testing/scanning.
— Persons arrested.
Statistics for customs searches of person are
published in HM Revenue and Customs and in future UK Border Agency
annual reports. Figures for 2008-09 are:
Statistics for those arrested by customs (whether
HMRC investigation or UKBA) in connection with all Class A drugs
offences. We are unable to provide data for cocaine offences alone.
4. Factors used by UKBA to profile persons
or flights where there is suspicion of cocaine smuggling
We select freight consignments and people for
checks and examination using a variety of targeting techniques
and indicators in order to identify those that have no legitimate
purpose for entering the UK and/or pose a threat to our national
and economic security and well being.
To do this we will use information from a variety
of sources including intelligence information and assessments,
passenger and cargo information provided by airlines and shipping
companies and any smuggling trends we identify from previous cocaine
seizures that we have made in the UK and from seizures made overseas.
With regard to air passengers our pre arrival
targeting system will identify unusual journey patterns and travel
arrangements. For example this will include:
— Origin of travel and route into the UK.
— Information regarding the purchase of
tickets.
— Information about the passengers baggage.
— Information about the passenger regarding
any previous smuggling attempts or involvement in crime.
Officers at airports will also profile passengers
as they arrive, using a variety of indicators on behaviour and
demeanour drawn from smuggling trend information.
The ethnicity category of any person does not
play any part in these processes. The IC code shown on the voluntary
inspection form seen during the Committee's visit enables us to
provide the search of person statistics mentioned above.
5. UKBA's international activity
The UK Border Agency is a global organisation
with 25,000 staff, operating across 135 countries, 365 days a
year, providing essential services to the taxpayer—securing
the border, controlling migration in the interest of the United
Kingdom and enforcing immigration and customs controls.
Through our country plans we work closely with the
FCO to ensure that, while responding flexibly to changing economic
conditions and the need to continue to thrive as a global hub,
the UK is protected from the people and goods that pose a threat
to our society. We are increasing our efforts to ensure that we
can intercept at the earliest point those who pose a threat to
our national interests and security. Set out below are three specific
examples where we are applying this principle:
Ireland—We have been working closely
with the Government of the Republic of Ireland to strengthen the
Common Travel Area (CTA) for a significant period of time and
remain committed to building on that relationship in the future.
We work closely with our Irish counterparts to explore and mitigate
abuse of the CTA. The work of the group is managed through an
overall country action plan overseeing a number of specific projects.
Through the framework of this plan, the UK and Republic of Ireland
have in partnership carried out a number of successful operations
to tackle cross border abuse; continued to work closely on the
development of the e-Borders Programme and the proposed Irish
equivalent system; and established a data sharing programme aimed
at preventing cross border crime within the CTA.
Libya—Libya is a major transit
country from the Horn of Africa to Europe, and the UK. A stronger
Libyan border results therefore, in a stronger UK border. We are
therefore working hard to strengthen Libyan border and migration
management through investing over £200,000 to assist the
return of illegal migrants to their home countries and the UK
has recently committed to partner two EU Thematic Fund bids which
are dedicated to building capacity in Libyan border management
and helping to target the high level of people trafficking in
the region.
Vietnam—Vietnam is one of UKBA's
priority countries for migration action. We have had a productive
Returns' MOU with Vietnam since 28 October 2004. IMPAVID is the
name given to visits to the UK at our invitation and expense by
officers of the Ministry of Public Security to re-document suspected
Vietnamese illegal migrants. They started as a consequence of
the signing of our Returns MOU with Vietnam and have continued
since. The Vietnamese side have shown themselves to be pragmatic
and helpful and most of our removals success since the MOU came
into force is attributable to IMPAVID.
In the last few years we have significantly
increased our use of risk and intelligence tools in order to strengthen
the UK's border overseas. We are one of the first border agencies
in the world to introduce biometric visas—three quarters
of the world's population now need to provide fingerprints which
are checked against police and immigration watchlists before they
can get issued with a visa. We have extended the visa regime to
five new countries this year—South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland,
Bolivia, Venezuela.
In 2008 we established the Risk and Liaison
Overseas Network (RALON), a network of 100 dedicated officers
who provide risk-assessment support to visa services, building
relationships with and provide training to host governments, foreign
missions, local law enforcement and airline staff. RALON officers
have already helped detect smuggled goods—we will extend
their role where appropriate to support our "Bridges"
(currently Westbridge and Airbridge) type activities and build
close links with SOCA's overseas officers.
We work closely with HMRC and SOCA's overseas
crime liaison officers to coordinate operational intelligence
and upstream disruption. In operations Airbridge and Westbridge
we provide mentoring and training to host agencies in countries
who wish to collaborate to stem the flow of drugs through their
ports or airports. We work with HMRC under the Government's Tobacco
Strategy to strengthen international partnerships to tackle tobacco
smuggling.
We aim to maintain and extend these partnerships,
ensuring that we retain sufficient flexibility and agility to
respond to changing threats and to maintain value for money for
taxpayers. We are therefore aiming to expand and evolve the Airbridge
and Westbridge model, in partnership with EU Member States and
willing host agencies to provide a framework for a flexible upstream
disruption model that can be deployed relatively quickly as threats
change. To this end we submitted two bids for EU funding for a
3 year structured plan to support Bridge activity in the Caribbean
and West Africa.
6. Further information on wider benefits of
creation of UK Border Agency
We have set up the UK Border Agency—a
single force bringing together immigration, customs and visas
checks. Last year UKBA stopped 28,000 individual attempts to cross
the channel illegally and the number of illegals detected in Kent
fell by nearly 90% from around 14,600 in 2001 to 1,800 in 2008.
— We have invested in new technology to
strengthen the border. Since January this year, technology used
in customs checks has helped in the seizure of illegal drugs worth
over £212 million and since April 2009 we have stopped over
25,000 dangerous weapons, including firearms, stun guns and knives,
reaching the streets.
— Since December 2007, all visas are biometric
and everyone applying for a visa has been subject to fingerprint
checks to stop illegal immigration. So far we have enrolled over
5 million sets of fingerprints, detecting thousands of false identities.
— We are rolling out electronic border
controls which by next year will be counting the majority of people
in and out and checking against watch lists. We have already screened
130 million passenger movements in and out of the UK against immigration,
customs and police watch lists. This has led to over 4,600 arrests
for crimes including murder, rape and assault, and significant
counter-terrorism interventions.
— Ultimately, e-Borders will provide an
electronic entry/exit system that will improve our ability to
secure the border. Although only based on biographical information,
this will go a long way to providing a full passenger movement
audit which could be augmented with targeted physical controls
to capture biometrics.
— We have completed the installation of
facial recognition gates in 10 terminals in the UK.
— We have introduced identity cards for
foreign nationals. We have now issued over 100,000 cards for foreign
nationals.
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