ABF Maintains Full Operations

Posted on

This week the Australian Border Force (ABF) issued a statement regarding comments that have been made on their officers’ workloads. While admitting there has been a reduction in international passenger movements, they insist that the number of ABF officers required to process international passengers remains high due to the requirements associated with COVID-19 protocols.

Officers have also been surged to other priority areas, providing various functions including customs, vessel clearance and organisational support for dedicated air freight services, to ensure that Australians have access to basic essentials.

A number of ABF officers have been redeployed from the international airports to Cargo and Postal Operations to service the massive increase in air cargo, which has surged as a result of restrictions on the eastern coast. They have been working in these centres to:

  • prevent the export of essential goods needed in Australia, such as face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, to prevent the spread the COVID-19
  • facilitate the import of these essential goods to prevent the spread of COVID-19
  • search for illegal items being sent through air and sea cargo and the post that continue to harm the Australian community such as narcotics.

Statistics demonstrate that:

  • In the first six months of 2020, ABF officers made over 9,800 detections of major drugs and precursors at the Australian border, a 19% increase over the same period last year.
  • In 2019-20 they have processed 57.8 million air cargo consignments – up from 53 million in 2018-19.
  • From 01 February to 30 June this year, ABF officers have processed over 2.4 million incoming sea cargo consignments – an 89% increase on the same period last year.

As licensed Customs Brokers and International Freight Forwarders, Colless Young offers professional service for all your imports and exports, both airfreight and seafreight. We cover all aspects of logistics, including clearance of cargo through customs and quarantine, warehousing and transport. We are based in Brisbane and handle freight Australia-wide.