Retrospective from the Chairman on World Border Security Congress - Casablanca - John Donlon QPM, FSI

World Border Security Congress organised by Torch Marketing and KNM Media, took place in Casablanca, Morocco on 21st-23rd March 2017. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) April 06, 2017 - The 2017 World Border Security Congress, in Casablanca, Morocco, was described by a senior member of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on day one, as, "a timely and important event at a special moment in time".

The opening session set the scene for this 3-day congress, articulated both the importance of Border Management activity internationally and the significant challenges, which Governments, Policy Makers and Law Enforcement Agencies face with increasing pressures in a difficult economic climate.

The task for the event was to explore the major issues that were common to so many nations and seek to continue to develop border management resolutions and solutions.

With a global audience representing 40 nations and nearly 250 participants the conference was delighted to have received some excellent presentations from a broad range of distinguished and experienced border related experts.

Alongside this, and importantly, there were some exceptional discussions and debates teasing out some of the more demanding areas of concern and addressing them from a range of perspectives, both from government and commercial positions.

The congress was very fortunate to have had a fantastic level of support from the Kingdom of Morocco, and the Ministry of Interior with the opening welcome being delivered by, His Excellency, Khalid Zerouali, Wali, Director of Migration and Border Surveillance for Morocco. His Excellency also gave the keynote address where he articulated his clear view on the connections between transnational organised crime leading to terrorism in the Maghreb region. He went on to empathise the importance of inter-agency cooperation both nationally and internationally, and this continued to be a general theme throughout whole conference.

The event was also most fortunate to have the support of, and speakers from, a wide range of international security organisations who have a focus on and around border management operations. Organisations such as:
• Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
• European Association of Airport and Seaport Police (EAASP)
• International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
• United Nations
• Pompidou Group
• Airpol
• EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM-Libya)
• EUROPOL

This was a truly global conference seeking to address global border issues and one which continually highlighted the need for continued efforts in developing, national, regional and international; Coordination, Cooperation and Communication. There were also some clear messages from some developing nations of the significant need for international support, expertise and training to assist them in addressing the challenges they face.

The conference participants were pleased to note that organisations, such as Europol, spoke about the very positive developments being made in terms of information sharing across Europe and with other international partners and organisations and also through their operational agreements with countries, such as the United States and Columbia. They believed that there were many factors which have contributed to their growing success in this area which included demonstrating the ability to store data on a truly secure platform and ensuring the integrity of data that is shared.

Other references were made to developing networking platforms to enable the development of inter-agency cooperation such as the OSCE, who referenced their Points of Contact Network. It was also pleasing to note that many speakers included the private sector in their considerations on coordination efforts.

As coordination was a recurring theme throughout the conference The World Border Security Congress wanted to assist in developing coordination platforms and announced on the final day that they would within the next few weeks launch a 'World Border Security - Password Protected Platform' for invited agency and government delegates, the intention being to enable the continuation of the great dialogue and communication which has taken place throughout the event. It will also provide access to the conference presentations, provide a platform to share news and case studies and allow opportunities to identify new technology trends.

The launch of this platform will hopefully encourage active participation from all delegates, speakers and others and will lay the foundations for the next event in March 2018 in Madrid.

For more details about the event visit World Border Security Congress - www.world-border-congress.com

The World Border Security Congress is an annual high level 3-day event that discusses and debates current and future policies, implementation issues and challenges as well as new and developing technologies that contribute towards safe and secure border and migration management.

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