Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The Gov­ern­ment is mov­ing to in­tro­duce leg­is­la­tion to sup­port the im­ple­men­ta­tion of an Ad­vanced Pas­sen­ger In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem (APIS) as part of ef­forts to strength­en bor­der se­cu­ri­ty and com­bat transna­tion­al crime.

Speak­ing at a post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing on Thurs­day, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath con­firmed that the pro­posed bill will soon be pre­sent­ed to Par­lia­ment.

Padarath said the leg­is­la­tion is ex­pect­ed to sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­prove the coun­try’s abil­i­ty to mon­i­tor and man­age its bor­ders through en­hanced da­ta shar­ing and in­tel­li­gence gath­er­ing.

“The House will meet, and we will de­lib­er­ate on that bill. It will bring a greater de­gree of bor­der se­cu­ri­ty and man­age­ment to Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he stat­ed.

He not­ed that con­cerns have long been raised about the coun­try’s porous bor­ders and lim­it­ed in­for­ma­tion ex­change with in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners.

“We have of­ten spo­ken about Trinidad and To­ba­go’s porous bor­ders and the lack of ef­fec­tive in­for­ma­tion ex­change with oth­er coun­tries. APIS will be a ma­jor tool in ad­dress­ing these chal­lenges, par­tic­u­lar­ly re­gard­ing transna­tion­al crime,” Padarath added.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­is­ter, de­bate on the leg­is­la­tion will in­volve key mem­bers of the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus, in­clud­ing the Min­is­ters of For­eign Af­fairs, Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, and De­fence. The dis­cus­sion will al­so high­light the an­tic­i­pat­ed ben­e­fits of the sys­tem.

Padarath point­ed out that APIS has al­ready proven ef­fec­tive in oth­er ju­ris­dic­tions and sug­gest­ed that Trinidad and To­ba­go has lagged be­hind in its adop­tion.

“I think Trinidad and To­ba­go is a bit on the back foot—not be­cause of this gov­ern­ment, but it is an is­sue we have been rais­ing for quite a while, even when we served in op­po­si­tion,” he said.

The APIS frame­work al­lows au­thor­i­ties to col­lect and as­sess pas­sen­ger in­for­ma­tion be­fore ar­rival, en­abling ear­ly iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of po­ten­tial se­cu­ri­ty threats.

Last month, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that the ini­tia­tive forms part of a broad­er strat­e­gy to strength­en bor­der se­cu­ri­ty through en­hanced co­op­er­a­tion with in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Unit­ed States.

Speak­ing af­ter Eid-ul-Fitr cel­e­bra­tions in Char­lieville, the Prime Min­is­ter said new on­line en­try sys­tems are al­ready be­ing in­tro­duced at the coun­try’s air­ports.

“The sys­tem will al­low au­thor­i­ties to pre-screen pas­sen­gers be­fore they ar­rive in Trinidad and To­ba­go. From the mo­ment you land, we will al­ready have on­line in­for­ma­tion to dis­tin­guish be­tween those who pose a threat and those who do not,” she said.