IMMIGRATION OFFICERS RECEIVE TRAINING, BUT IMPACT

UNCLAS PORT AU PRINCE 000136 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/EX, WHA/CAR, PRM, CA S/CRS SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR INR/IAA WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM CASC HA SUBJECT: IMMIGRATION OFFICERS RECEIVE TRAINING, BUT IMPACT UNCERTAIN ¶1. Summary: As part of its project, ''Capacity Building in Migration Management'' (CBMM) sponsored by the government of Canada, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) held a series of training workshops for Haitian immigration officers. The workshops provided valuable information and tools that should help the officers identify fraudulent travel documents, but Haitian immigration officers continue to face shortfalls in basic knowledge, skills, and equipment. Many continue to engage in criminal behavior. End summary. ¶2. POLOFF attended parts of IOM's December 10-12 training workshop in Port-au-Prince for Haitian immigration officers. The workshop was the last of a series of three-day workshops. Twenty-five immigration officers from different parts of the country attended. Sean Burke, a contractor and former Australian immigration officer, instructed the officers on passport security features and fraud detection, including demonstrations of a security laminate verifier, a mini ultra-violet fluorescent lantern and a lighted 10-power magnification scope. The equipment was included in kits that IOM provided to participants free of charge. IOM also provided each officer a companion reference manual on methodology for passport fraud detection. The workshop also included sessions addressing imposter identification and past travel reconstruction from immigration stamps. ¶3. Haitian immigration officers at the workshop revealed that they have no specimen passports for many countries, including their own; that they lack a basic sense of political geography (many inspectors thought that China and Taiwan were the same country); and that most Haitians mistrust immigration officers because the latter have been implicated in home invasions. (Note: Haitian travelers surmise that immigration officers pass addresses of specific travelers and information on goods they import to criminal associates, who then invade these residences targeting specific items to steal. Consequently, immigration officers admit that most of the addresses on the immigration cards are false and that Haitians remain defensive about their place of residence when questioned. End note.) ¶4. POLOFF learned from Altenor Junior, Director of Immigration in Les Cayes (located on Haiti's southern coast), that small boats present the biggest problem for immigration enforcement on Haiti's southern coast. Junior told POLOFF that many are Haitian and foreign pleasure/fishing craft that legitimately have no fixed itineraries. Consequently, unlike large vessels that must announce their arrival to port in advance, small boats with non-Haitian citizen passengers can easily evade immigration in-processing and registration of foreigners entering the country. ¶5. Comment: Haiti needs more of such training for immigration officials, who still face the most elementary impediments to doing their jobs effectively. Currently, immigration officers have no means of communication with each other, lacking electricity, computers, reliable office telephones, and radios. IOM's CBMM project will attempt to provide electricity, computers, and radios to a few immigration checkpoints on the land border with the Dominican Republic, but communication challenges remain for many of the immigration checkpoints. As is often the case in Haiti, immigration officials in the capital receive the lion's share of scarce resources, starving their colleagues outside the capital of the means to do their jobs. Finally, immigration officers themselves admit corruption in their own ranks. Officers also are implicated in illegal activities at the airports and ports. SANDERSON