Human trafficking is not easy to detect and collecting good intelligence and data is important to identifying possible risks at the border.
Australian Border Force (ABF) Commissioner Michael Outram said this in an exclusive interview with this newspaper on Wednesday.
The Australian immigration and border security expert said he met with director Immigration Amelia Komaisavai this week to get a better understanding of where the ABF could add most – whether it be through training, partnerships or joint operations.
“In any country, human trafficking and modern slavery are very hard to detect, they operate under the surface,” Mr Outram said.
“And we find that collecting intelligence and getting good data around the scale of these problems is not easy, so data is key at the border.”
The ABF Commissioner also said Fiji would had to improve on the technology being used at borders.
“Managing the movement of people and goods at the speed and the volumes we are going to have to in the future, manual processes will be insufficient to manage that risk.”
Mr Outram said border agencies would require data and intelligence.
“So certainly what we call targeting — targeting at the border, targeting travellers and targeting goods of concern.
“How you become aware they’re of concern is the key, and that requires not only data but also intelligence.”
He said Australia had considerable experience in the targeting space and was willing to share knowledge, information and insights with Fijian border security agencies.
