After the meeting held yesterday by the Mauritian Police Authorities with the local shipping agents, kindly note that the following points were discussed/implemented:

Past the 1st of April, ( they have made it clear) the  local authorities (Customs, Police Armory, Port Police etc…)will INSIST that each Arms Transiting Mauritius (via sea or air) must be supported by EUCs/Licenses which:

• Bear Serial numbers of the arms transiting.
• Bear a signature of a recognised authority (Exm: Director of Customs/ Director of Trade/ Permanent Secretary/ Minister of Defence or the equivalent)
• Bear the seal of the signing authority.
• Have  a current validity date.
• Be from a reliable source (they reserve the right to reject certain EUCs from countries from which fraudulent EUCs have been emitted in a recent past – without however naming specific countries).
• Has a stated end use purpose (namely to assist against maritime piracy).

• Arms not supported by such document will NOT be allowed out of the customs or to off-board passing ships.

• Important fields on an EUC/License cannot bear the mark non-applicable and must be filled in.
• Export of arms via air freight is now banned. No issues on regular imports though. Basically all air freighted arms and ammunitions once imported must leave via ships. If disembarked they will be , as per usual, stored at the local police armory pending reshipment on passing vessels.

Other points discussed included:

• The local armoury will soon be extended to increase the stocking capacity and therefore they may review the 3 weeks imposed storage period to be increased. The project is a government funded project.

• Some modifications needs to be done in the paperwork at the shipping agent level (that of course we are taking care of).

Basically the above is a summary and highlight of points discussed/imposed. It has been highlighted throughout the meeting that the objective of putting the above regulations into place is to prevent potential diversion of arms to unintended destinations in the future. We as your shipping agent will be responsible to make sure the above guidelines are duly implemented. We acknowledge that the above points will necessitate some URGENT review of procedures and consequent adaptation. It is  important that you as a maritime security company coordinate with us as your shipping agent to make sure that everything happens in a timely fashion.

Yours truly,

The PAS (Mauritius) Team

www.portagent.mu/

Port Agency Services Bio