meeting took place in Skadar, Albania, and focused on technical issues at the joint JBCP
Murican – Sukobin with regard to the upcoming summer season. The parties agreed to
speed up the process of drafting procedures for the implementation of the entrance-entrance
access control. IT experts from both border police administrations elaborated on the
possibilities of installing an information system on wanted persons, vehicles and documents
as well as on the number of people and vehicles crossing the JBCP. The information system
was planned to be available at the beginning of the tourist season.
On 11 May, a follow-up meeting took place at the JBCP Murican – Sukobin. Both OSCE
Missions facilitated the meeting. IT experts from the Albanian and Montenegrin police
decided to set up a joint on-line information system, which was expected to allow
implementation of the entrance-entrance control regime without neglecting security
measures. Furthermore, the experts considered implementing this system at all Montenegrin
border crossing points with its neighbouring countries. It was expected that the control
procedures would speed up significantly while security measures would still be at a high
level.
On 7 June, the Mission facilitated a cross-border co-ordination meeting between the
Montenegrin Border Police delegation and Serbian Border Police delegation. The meeting
took place in Bjelo Polje, Montenegro, in line with the OSCE BSMC. At the meeting the
delegations focused on: the implementation of existing agreements between Serbia and
Montenegro; the analysis of joint patrols and operations conducted by the two border
agencies during 2011; the analysis of the functioning of the BCPs; problems encountered
and measures taken to solve them; bilateral co-operation at local level; co-operation
regarding the exchange of information; and the management of the influx of people during
the summer holiday season. Both sides underlined common difficulties they were facing in
their work along the green border, particularly with regard to joint patrols, illegal migration
and border crossing control. The following measures for improving the situation were
proposed: Increasing and enhancing daily communication and information exchange at the
local level, and bringing the issue to the regional and central level, if necessary; increasing
the number of joint patrols in line with the conclusions of the joint risk analyses (four to eight
patrols per month proposed); and taking all necessary measures to suppress illegal
migrations.
On 14 June, the Mission, in co-operation with the OSCE Presence in Albania, organized
another regional level meeting between the border police authorities of Albania and
Montenegro. The meeting took place in Shkoder. At the meeting the delegations focused on:
the implementation of existing agreements between Albania and Montenegro; the analysis of
joint patrols and operations conducted by the two border agencies in the first six months of
2012; the analysis of the functioning of the JBCP Muriqan-Sukobin; problems encountered
and measures taken to solve them; bilateral co-operation at local level; co-operation
regarding the exchange of information; and the management of the influx of people during
the summer holiday season. In order to avoid long queues at the BCP the delegations
proposed the following measures: 1) to assign more police officers during the tourist season;
2) to increase the number of police officers’ kiosks and computers in order to speed up the
checking procedures; and 3) to check the passenger buses in advance through tourist
agencies. The parties agreed to set up additional measures during the meeting of the Joint
Experts Committee, which was due to take place the following week.
On 17-21 September, the Mission organized a five-day training course on new mechanisms
for detecting and investigating the smuggling of persons, goods and illegal substances by
sea and land; as well as opportunities to discuss the relevance and applicability of these
mechanisms in the everyday work of the Montenegrin border law enforcement services, such
as Border Police and Customs Administration. Course participants included seven police
officers from the Border Police and seven investigators from Customs Administration.
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