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Barbados signs EU-funded SEACOP MoU to monitor maritime trafficking

13.12.2016
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The signing of the SEACOP MoU means that Barbados will officially join 25 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean in accessing training and equipping law enforcement agencies to identify, search and interdict all forms of maritime trafficking.

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On 13 December 2016, Mr Timothy O. Maynard, Permanent Secretary (Ag.), Division of Defence and Security, Office of the Prime Minister of Barbados, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the implementation of the Seaport Cooperation (SEACOP) project, in the presence of Her Excellency Ms Daniela Tramacere, Ambassador of the European Union.

The MoU signals the official joining of Barbados with 25 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean in the implementation of SEACOP, which is aimed at training and equipping inter-agency units to identify, search and interdict all forms of maritime trafficking.

SEACOP improves the capacity of law enforcement agencies in monitoring maritime trafficking and detecting illicit maritime cargoes. With its provision of access to databases, as well as regional and inter-regional networks of partners, it is designed to move law enforcement towards an intelligence-led approach that will help reduce the trafficking of cocaine.

SEACOP is implemented on behalf of the European Union by the Spanish international cooperation agency Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas (FIIAPP).

Background:

The Seaport Cooperation Project will run until December 2018 with a budget of €6 million, and will cover selected countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. During the first two phases beginning in 2010 the project was focussed on West Africa, where it set up a network of Joint Maritime Control Units (JMCUs) in strategic seaports.

The SEACOP initiative is a critical component of the Cocaine Route Programme, which is funded by the EU. Having established effective units in West Africa, the project is now extending into a number of new countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean States, to reflect continuous changes in trafficking routes.

The EU's Cocaine Route Programme, in operation since 2009, is a response to the threat from drug trafficking and organised crime to the countries along the route from source to market. Through a number of interconnected and complementary projects the Cocaine Route Programme supports the capacity of partners in combating the manufacture of and intercepting the flow of drugs, fighting money laundering and sharing information. The Cocaine Route Programme operates in over 40 countries and has a budget in excess of €50 million.

 

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