Customs, officer Chadine Allen (left), receives her certificate from Carol Charlton, senior director of immigration, during a closing ceremony at a joint training programme on border protection. The ceremony was held at the Jamaica Customs Department on King Street, downtown Kingston, yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

OVER 50 persons graduated yesterday from a joint customs/immigration training programme in Kingston. They will be part of a 600-strong team that will man Jamaica's borders for the ICC Cricket World Cup which gets under way on March 11.

Assistant Commissioner of Customs, Clyde Thompson, told The Gleaner that the graduates participated in a five-month training programme which familiarised them with the demands of an international event.

"They will be working at all the security points including the airports, the wharves and all customs operations," Mr. Thompson explained. "There is also the profiling of passengers and how you question or target them."

The trainees were instructed in how to deal with potential terrorist threats, as well as identifying terrorists who might attempt to slip into the region.

Dangerous persons list

Mr. Thompson said the customs and immigration departments have received a list from Interpol of dangerous persons to look out for before and during the World Cup, which lasts for six weeks.

Last week, Secretary General of Interpol, Ronald Noble, visited the Caribbean to finalise the organisation's security arrangements for the World Cup.

Mr. Noble said Interpol will link regional immigration and customs officials with its MIND/FIND database which has the identification numbers of over 13 million travel documents.