The Regional Workshop on Enhancing the Capacity of Customs and Ports Personnel in the Arab Countries to Monitor, Detect and Prevent Illegal Trade in Toxic Chemicals, Hazardous Waste and environmentally-Sensitive commodities covered by the relevant Multilateral environmental agreement (MEAs)

Venue: Hilton Alexandria Corniche

Address: 544 El-Gaish Rd, Alexandria Governorate 21611

Background:  BCRC-Egypt with the assistance of Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS) organized a four days Regional workshop for managers and officers of the customs and ports in the Arab countries.

Working Language: Arabic and English

Organizer: BCRC-Egypt

Meeting Objectives:  The main objective was to raise the efficiency and capabilities of managers and officers of the customs and the persons concerned with controlling and licensing and monitoring of hazardous chemicals and waste. It also focused on training the participants on how to monitor and facilitate the legal trade and how to detect and prevent illegal trade in hazardous materials.

Target Audience:  The workshop targeted the managers and officers of the customs and ports in the Arab countries. There were 26 participants from 11 Arab countries attended this workshop: Republic of Djibouti, Arab Republic of Egypt, Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Algeria Republic, Kingdom of Morocco, Tunisian Republic, United Arab Emirates, Libya country and Republic of Sudan.

Outcome

At the end of the workshop the participants along with the experts participated in long discussions to produce important recommendations about the need for financial support to BCRC-Egypt that can help the centre to achieve several activities that Arab countries request from the center.

Recommendations

The recommendations included the need to transfer success stories of different Arabic countries to exchange experiences through Basel regional center and the preparation of pilot model (Pocket Guide) for the customs officers to facilitate the work on site. Along with the need to prepare the workshop, the center of specialization in which the indicative list of portable devices that are used to detect the hazardous materials and waste in work sites and financial cost of operating methods through the call of countries requested from the centre,  Producing companies. 

 Meeting Documents