The Immigration Department is exposing some of its officers to a series of intense
training that will help them, to more readily detect fraudulent documents at the
country’s border control stations.
These officers are attending a training session organized by the department with
assistance from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), whose officer,
Pier-Luc Beausejour is serving as the facilitator of the three-day workshop.
“This training is put on by the Canadian Embassy located in the Dominican
Republic, and by extension the CBSA with Mr. Beausejour as the facilitator
imparting knowledge to our immigration officers. The topics to be covered include
detecting fraudulent documents i.e., being able to identify fraudulent passports as
well as the detection of imposters which will be done by a certain line of
questioning. This means that interviewing techniques will also be covered,” Chief
Immigration Officer, Katrina Yearwood explained.
This module concludes on Thursday, but Yearwood disclosed that a similar
exercise will take place next week, conducted this time by the US Embassy based
in Barbados.
Both the US Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Services
Agency (TSA) will be involved in that training from September 18-20.
Asked what has brought on the need for these training sessions organized
separately by the Canadian and US governments, Yearwood said it is being driven
by the need to ‘sharpen our skills.’
“The need for this training is timely, as the landscape is changing for immigration
departments not only for us in Antigua and Barbuda but regionally and around the
world. We just have to make sure that we are on top of our game with the new
trends that are emerging,” she further explained.
