First Rapid Border Intervention Teams’ Exercise has started yesterday in Porto, Portugal. The aim of the exercise is to test the new mechanism for deployment of Rapid Border Intervention Teams in real circumstances. Border Guards from 16 Member States are helping the Portuguese authorities to avert the illegal immigration threat from the fictional island of Central American Republic.
The concept of Rapid Border Intervention Teams was introduced by the Regulation (EC) 863/2007 consisting in creation of a pool of experts from the Member States, trained by Frontex, that could be deployed in urgent and exceptional situations. This pool is composed of experts and expert teams skilled in particular aspects of border control and with specific geographically related knowledge.
After having implemented all necessary legal regulations and procedures related to the functioning of Rapid Border Intervention Teams it was decided to deploy them in real circumstances of Porto Airport in advance of a first non-fictional request from a Member State. Main goals of this particular operation are:
- to test the new mechanism in real circumstances,
- to test the administrative procedures necessary for deployment within the time limits mentioned in the RABIT Regulation,
- to deal with operational challenges and open questions in advance of real mission,
- to further develop the management of RABITs within Frontex.
Rapid Border Intervention Teams deployed to the Porto airport are carrying out regular border checks together with their Portuguese partners; the only difference is the fictional scenario developed by Frontex Headqarters.
Officers participating in the exercise are experts in border checks, forged and falsified documents as well as in so called second line interviews of third country nationals. They come from law enforcement bodies of: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
Scenario
The airport of Porto is being reached by a large number of citizens of the fictional island of Central American Republic (CAR), using high quality forged documents obtained from a forgery network operating in that country.
From the beginning of October a new route has been established between CAR and Porto. CENTRAL AMERICAN WINGS airline introduced 2 daily flights from CAR to Porto. The airline uses Boeing 747 for every flight, which indicates a capacity of 450 passengers per flight.
It is known that the bad economic situation in CAR had driven people to take the decision to leave the country. Due to the hard visa restrictions imposed by the EU, citizens of CAR started using high quality forged documents of European and visa-exempted American countries produced by criminal networks.
The entry to the Schengen area via Porto is the only possible one for CAR citizens due to the lack of other flight connections between CAR and the EU.
On 15th of October 2007 CENTRAL AMERICAN WINGS airline published an announcement stating that due to the enormous demand on flight tickets from CAR to Porto, CENTRAL
AMERICAN WINGS intended to introduce two additional intercontinental daily flights starting from 5th of November 2007. The Portuguese authorities expect a huge influx of CAR citizens, who will try to enter the Schengen area by using forged or falsified documents. The Portuguese border guard service is not able to deploy officers to the Porto Airport, having required profile and experience.