United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

South Eastern Europe

EU and UNODC joint Action promoting rule of law and good governance through targeted border control measures at ports and airports

PROJECT DURATION: January 2020 - December 2023

EC CONTRIBUTION: €4,450,000

TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET: €4,672,500

LOCATION: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo[1]* (similar programmes in Albania being covered from other sources)

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: WCO and INTERPOL

OBJECTIVE

This project is aimed at enhancing the capacities of authorities in the Western Balkans to fight organized crime, by supporting more effective and coordinated responses to illicit trafficking by border law enforcement at land and port border crossing points and international airports in the region.

The project is a joint action involving the UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP) and the UNODC-WCO-INTERPOL Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP) in cooperation with the UNODC Regional Programme for South Eastern Europe.

Through this action, UNODC aims to establish joint airport inter-agency groups that will receive technical support from CCP and AIRCOP with the support of the UNODC Regional Programme for South Eastern Europe. The inter-agency groups will be composed of an AIRCOP Joint Airport Interdiction Task Force (JAITF) focusing on passenger threats, including foreign terrorist fighters, and a CCP Air Cargo Control Unit (ACCU) focusing on cargo threats at the Belgrade airport.

Through this action, UNODC will further implement CCP, which has been present in the region since 2013 with Port Control Units (PCUs) already established in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo*, and another one to be established in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the future. Three new ACCUs will be established through the CCP-Air programme, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Skopje, North Macedonia and Belgrade, Serbia.

Under the AIRCOP part of the action, UNODC will establish and operationalize the JAITFs focusing on passengers at the above airports. AIRCOP is new to the region, while being a large-scale global programme of UNODC.

This will support the implementation of the UN Conventions on drugs and crime and the EU Acquis, notably the Chapters 23 and 24 addressing serious organized crime, rule of law, good governance and security. The action will improve effectiveness and develop synergies between law enforcement actors at the national, regional and international levels and build bridges between various thematic areas as well as between the Western Balkans and other regions, improving the security situation in the Western Balkans and Europe as a whole, in line with the UNODC promoted Inter-Regional Drug Control Approach and its “Networking the Networks” initiative.

The specific objectives (Outcomes) of the action are as follows:

• to support more effective national and international responses to illicit trafficking by means of implementing the following goals:

-      strengthening the three current PCUs under the CCP: Bijača land border crossing (Bosnia and Herzegovina); port of Bar (Montenegro) and Vermice/Vrbnica boundary crossing (Kosovo*) by capacity building, strengthening joint work and follow-up visits;

-         establishing new similar control units under the CCP: one new PCU at Gradiška land border crossing in Bosnia and Herzegovina and three new ACCUs at the international airports of Skopje, Belgrade and Sarajevo.

• to strengthen the capacities of law enforcement agencies active at international airports in the Balkans to detect and intercept high risk passengers, in an effort to counter international organized crime and illicit drug trafficking, and prevent terrorism by:

-         supporting the establishment and operationalization of an AIRCOP JAITF at the International Airports of Belgrade (Serbia), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Skopje (North Macedonia) via the AIRCOP project.