The World Customs Organization (WCO), supported by United States Customs and Border Protection, recently conducted a successful mission to the Maldives in March 2018.

During this visit, the Maldives Customs Service (MCS), led by Chief Customs Officer Mohamed Afzal, provided a comprehensive review of the operational, intelligence and interdiction efforts being made at Velana International Airport. In addition, the Information and Technology (IT) department also provided an in depth look at the current systems in use and their capabilities to support various customs enforcement operations.

To further enhance capacity for MCS officers in the passenger processing and interdiction realm, the WCO Asia Pacific Security Project, funded by the Government of Japan, was able to successfully initiate the installation of the passenger targeting Global Travel Assessment System (GTAS).

Maldives Customs Service will continue their positive efforts with the airlines and Civil Aviation Authority to receive real-time passenger information and become compliant with UN Security Resolutions. This system allows customs officers to receive advanced passenger information (API) and passenger name record (PNR) to conduct pre-arrival risk assessment of passengers.

Training was provided to customs targeting officers as well as the IT support team in order to become self-sufficient in long term use and maintenance of the GTAS system.