POLICY REPORT ON IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM IN LATVIA ...

109
BORDER CONTROL
8 Control and surveillance at external borders
8.1 European Pact on Immigration and Asylum (1-2 paragraphs in the text box created for
each commitment)
The relevant commitments in the Pact for this sub-section are in particular:
III(a) more effective control of the external land, sea and air borders:
Please describe any relevant (planned) developments to ensure more effective control,
such as reinforcing border control staff, providing training, increasing overall resources.
Note that technological means are to be described under the Pact commitment below.
In 2010, the structural units of the State Border Guard participated in:
• international operation “Quiet Sea 2010". Purpose of the operation: examinations for
vessels that are admitted as suspects for carrying of smuggled goods and narcotic drugs;
• Operational – tactical training organised by the State Border Guard "RONIS 2010".
Purpose of the training: examination of the readiness of crew change of the State Border Guard
ship vessels at the base location and at sea (exercise of examination of the readiness of ship
vessel K-3), as well as improvement of the cooperation quality with cooperation structural
units, namely, detection of violators of ship and speed boats by the use of the Sea Video
Surveillance System, mobile surveillance kit and radar system, pursuance and detention of a
suspicious vessel, examination of a vessel and a speedboat at sea, delivery of a detained vessel
to port, people search and rescue activities, transportation of a victim to hospital, application of
procedural measures to detained persons and detained vessels;
• Tactical trainings organized by the State Border Guard on land external borders.
Purpose of the training: improve the methodology for detection and detaining of trespassers
and illegal immigrants, methods and mutual cooperation among the structural units of the State
Border Guard, as well as improve the cooperation between the territorial administration of the
State Border Guard and the Aviation Administration of the State Border Guard;
• international operation on the Latvian – Russian and Latvian – Belarusian borders
"UNITY".
Funds for protection of the state borders in 2010 were reduced in proportion to the
decreased budget totally allocated to the State Border Guard.
III(e) deploy modern technological means for border control:
Please describe any new technological equipment purchased and used during the
reference period, including IT systems, surveillance equipment, automated border
controls and fast track lanes, etc. If possible, also make reference to any developments
relevant to the EU entry / exit system, the EU Registered Traveller Programme, the
Schengen Information System (SIS II) and European Border Surveillance System.
In 2010, new border control technological means were not purchase By taking into
account the scopes of the European Border Surveillance Systems (EUROSUR and
MARSUNO), the existing systems will be improved in the future that will be used in the sea
border surveillance and in specific cases they will be integrated within a common information
network. By introducing the European Union entry/return and the European Union registered
travellers’ system, it will be necessary to ensure the link to the national border crossing system.
8.2 Stockholm Programme (1-2 paragraphs in the text box created for each commitment)