The border enforcement duties now being performed by the Cayman Islands Immigration Department will be merged with Her Majesty’s Customs service as part of an overall crime-fighting strategy being pursued by the Progressives-led government.
The Cayman Islands government is moving ahead with the plans for a national border force, merging the enforcement elements of immigration and customs. The government has enlisted the help of UK border expert Colin Brown, who arrived in the Cayman Islands in January on secondment from the UK’s Border Force National Targeting Centre. Brown has been working with the steering committee charged with the planning and eventual implementation of the merger. The Ministry of Human Resources and the Immigration Department have already begun to combine administrative services performed by the Immigration Department in the granting of work permits and other related matters. Eventually, those services will be controlled by a single public sector human resources department.
Premier McLaughlin said residents would begin to notice changes in security officers staffing ports of entry within the next year. Immigration and customs staff are undergoing cross-training and participating in joint operations and staff members wearing the new uniforms of the combined service should be seen soon.
He also noted that changes will be made to the local police force and marine patrol efforts beyond those already proposed in the 2018 and 2019 budget plans. In addition to receiving a new community policing unit and a projected 75 new police officers over the next three years, the territory is also making medium-term budgeting plans to support an independent coast guard service, to be operated separately from other law enforcement agencies. Phil Bostock, a commander in the UK’s Maritime and Coast Guard Agency is on island to assist in the development of the new coast guard which will have a multifaceted role including search and rescue, patrolling the seas and helping to fight crime.
The new joint agency should be in place for the start of the financial year in January 2019.
