Croatia: ICITAP Partners with Departments of State and Homeland Security for Regional Passenger Information Unit Workshop

From July 20 to 21, 2021, ICITAP, in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (DHS/CBP) and the Department of State’s Counterterrorism Bureau (DOS/CT), delivered a two-day Regional Passenger Information Unit (PIU) workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together representatives from existing, as well as presumptive future Passenger Information Units in the Western Balkans, to review and learn best practices and participate in realistic scenarios that may require multi-country coordination with regards to the collection and analysis of Advance Passenger Information and Passenger Name Records. Participants came from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Romania. Representatives from CBP highlighted standard best practices for a well-functioning PIU. This refresher for experienced PIU representatives served as an introduction to representatives from countries beginning to establish PIUs and cover areas such as model staffing, targeting rules, typical IT concerns, etc. The workshop provided the regionally experienced national PIUs a chance to present their lessons and case studies as they established their PIUs and to begin analyzing API and PNR data.