Maritime threats – International Training of Maritime Inspection Groups - Course 35/2017

Current threats to maritime security involving illegal migration, smuggling of drugs, weapons as well as terrorist attacks indicate the need to improve international cooperation of maritime inspection groups performing their tasks on vessels within combating cross border criminality.

Therefore, on 22-25 May 2017 at the Baltic Waters the Main Border Guard Training Centre in Koszalin, Poland in the cooperation with the Maritime Regional Unit of the Border Guard organised the training for 25 law enforcement officers from 16 EU countries carrying tasks in maritime inspection groups.

Boarding the vessel, inspection of the crew members, searching the vessel as well as neutralising a person posing a threat to the other crew members, were some of the tasks set to the participants of the course. Other challenges prepared by the organisers included fire in the engine room which made the inspection group to reorganise and evacuate from the board of the ship. All of the members of the group equipped with helmets, survival suits and jumped into cold waters of the Baltic Sea. Low temperature, rain and wind made the conditions more difficult and posed a real challenge to all the participants. Despite difficult hydrological and meteorological conditions, all of the tasks were accomplished by the participants of the course successfully.

It is worth mentioning that the activities code named “Neptun 2017” created the opportunity to gather in one place law enforcement officers and experts from different countries and share experiences as well as the knowledge with other participants.

The exercises were predeceased by the lectures carried out by the experts from Poland, Portugal, France and Greece on radicalisation, detecting counterfeit documents, risk analysis and profiling.

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Main Border Guard Training Centre in Koszalin