Senior Turks & Caicos Islands Government officials from various departments are to attend an inaugural Border Security conference in Miami, Tuesday, 21 to Thursday, 23 October 2014.
Director of Immigration, Mr Larry Mills, will be joined by Intelligence Officer, Ms Latoya Mitchell, Collector of Customs, Mrs Chawa Williams and Police Commissioner, Mr Colin Farquhar and Head of Governor’s Office, Mr Patrick Boyle at the three day event arranged by UK Home and Foreign Office officials and the Overseas Territories (OT) Law Enforcement Adviser, Mr Larry Covington.
They will be joined by senior officials from the British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, St. Helena, and Montserrat, where a variety of common themes and issues will be discussed including, passport and visa issuing, citizenship processes, integrated border management, and border security threats.
Hon. R.D. Gardiner, Minister of Border Control and Labour stated; “Like other OT, border security is a major concern for TCIG. It is high priority for us to continue to strengthen this area by exhausting all resources available to us.
“That includes this particular exercise and continued strengthening of our Immigration Legislation which includes our new Immigration Bill that is currently being put forward.”
The objectives of the conference are to discuss common OT border security issues and identify potential solutions that may be addressed in a more coordinated manner going forward, with appropriate UK support. Actions and conclusions will be presented to OT Governors and senior UK officials at the next Joint Ministerial Council in December.
