Africa-Press – Mauritius. A two-week course on Crime Scene Investigation and Instructor Development, organised by INTERPOL under the AGWE and COMPASS Projects, in collaboration with Mauritian authorities, kicked off on Monday 29 November 2021.
Some 20 participants from the Eastern-Southern, Western African and Indian Ocean region will hone their skills in better assisting law enforcement investigators of their respective countries in dealing with complex maritime-based crime cases.
The Crime Scene training will be provided by instructors from the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), while the Instructor Development Course will be offered by the INTERPOL Capacity Building and Training Directorate. In his address at the opening ceremony, the Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr H.
Jangi, stated that maritime threats such as, piracy, terrorism, trafficking in illicit goods and weapons of mass destruction, pollution, illegal fishing and other transnational crimes are a global phenomenon and we are all exposed to them.
As such, a multi-dimensional approach is crucial and these threats which are of transnational nature require a wide range of interventions from various law enforcement organisations for ensuring a well-coordinated response, he added.
Mr Jangi highlighted that this forum provides an ideal platform to reflect on how law enforcement agencies in East Africa, Southern Africa, Western Africa as well as the Indian Ocean regions can collectively address some of the challenges undermining the security in the region and the threats impacting on the wellbeing of the citizens.
Participants, he pointed out, will have the opportunity to share experiences, knowledge and best practices in the field of Crime Scene Preservation and Management in the maritime environment, despite the difficult situation prevailing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
He observed that participants are among the privileged who are having the opportunity to interact with experts from INTERPOL and the US NCIS. These experts, he outlined, are very skilled and have gathered wealth of experience in the field of Crime Scenes in the maritime domain.
Moreover, Mr Jangi expressed his belief that the holding of these courses will send a strong signal to criminals and criminal nexuses around the world that they will not find safe haven across borders.
These courses, he stressed, will not only strengthen the existing cooperation among various law enforcement agencies, but will also develop strategic and operational collaboration for more effective response to complex maritime-based crime cases.
He recalled that the recent grounding of MV Wakashio at Pointe d’Esny has shown the importance of regional and international cooperation for the effective management of such major disasters.
It was also an eye opener for the necessity to continuously improve the capacity building of law enforcement officials for effective response and management of major disasters including the examination of a crime scene, he added.
For his part, INTERPOL’s AGWE Project Manager, Mr E. Prenci, commended the Mauritian Authorities for helping INTERPOL in the organisation of these courses.
He underscored that one of the important pillars of INTERPOL is capacity building and as such, the training courses will enable sharing of information between participants so as to be more efficient in maritime security.
He further encouraged participants to pass on what they will learn to first responders of their respective agencies so as to enable the latters to be more effective and efficient in their line of work.
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