LYON, France – Senior Libyan officials from the Ministry of the Interior have attended the first meeting of INTERPOL’s Project RELINC (Rebuilding Libya's Investigative Capability), a European Union-funded initiative to assist Libyan authorities in developing a sustainable capability to identify security threats and investigate criminal and terrorist activity.
During the four-day meeting (19 – 22 November) at the General Secretariat headquarters, discussions focused on the key components of the project, including provision of access to INTERPOL's databases at Libya's border crossing points and the creation of a crime analysis unit within the criminal investigations department.
Following the 2011 revolution, the project is aimed at supporting Libyan law enforcement in addressing transnational crimes such as trafficking in weapons, drugs and human beings, which generate violence and threaten to destabilize the country and the region.
The project consists of seven components :
- Performing a wide assessment of the threats posed to Libya by transnational organized crime and terrorism, to support the Libyan government and police in identifying strategic enforcement objectives;
- Initiating the building, within the Libyan police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), of a sustainable operational Crime Analysis Unit;
- Advising the CID to take full operational advantage of the support provided by the future Crime Analysis Unit;
- Reinforcing the capacity of the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Tripoli to make optimal use of the INTERPOL network and policing tools;
- Establishing remote access to INTERPOL databases in key Libyan law enforcement bodies and at strategic border crossing points;
- Building a prototype police criminal database within police headquarters to enable the Libyan police to efficiently store and share criminal information;
- Raising the awareness of and training the Libyan police on the international police cooperation tools and mechanisms provided by INTERPOL.
The 18-month long project, launched in September 2012, is being run from the Office of the Special Representative of INTERPOL to the European Union, with support from INTERPOL’s Middle East and North Africa unit at the General Secretariat.