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