29 August – 2 September 2022, RDTC Korea

The WCO Asia/Pacific regional Workshop on Canines was held from 29 August to 2 September 2022 at the Regional Dog Training Center (RDTC) Korea as the first face-to-face workshop in AP region after COVID-19 pandemic. The Workshop was hosted by the ROCB A/P in close cooperation with the WCO under the sponsorship of the Korea Customs Cooperation Fund (CCF/Korea). The 18 Customs administrations in the Asia and Pacific region attended the Workshop. Together with the canine and drug experts from the WCO and ABF, Mr. Gideon Ilkwon HAN, Program Manager of the ROCB A/P also attended as facilitators/coordinators for the Workshop.

In order to enhance Members’ capacities in the area of canine enforcement to combat the smuggling of dangerous and contraband items and to serve as an effective regional platform to share best practices and define common challenges, the Workshop covered the canines training programs and skills of the RDTC Korea and ABF as well as Experiences from AP members, including Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). Through a series of presentations and discussions, the participants understanded that canine capability is the effective and efficient tool to tackle the illegal goods with minimal disruptive manner, such as drugs, cash, wild life product etc.

During the workshop, Experiences from 9 AP members, namely Australia, Fiji, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia and Pakistan were shared through the country presentations and the participants actively participated in the discussion of each training, breed and operation scheme for benchmark, facilitated by experts. Also, the participants exchanged their experiences to address the challenges on how to implement detector dog activity under the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, the participants had two times of on-site tour at the Incheon International airport passenger terminal and post office, together with the Express Cargo Clearance Center in Incheon Main Customs to observe the canine deployment.

The active contribution of the participants resulted in a successful workshop and this workshop supported enhancing communication and information sharing among Member administrations even in the pandemic situation. The participants expressed their appreciation to the Korea Customs Service, the WCO, the ROCB A/P and the Experts for their support to the workshop.

For more information, please contact at rocb@rocbap.org