View Vacancy - BK - Immigration Liaison Officer, B3 (L)
The successful candidate will work for Immigration Enforcement International (IEI), part of the Home Office, at the British Embassy.
IEI has responsibility for identifying threats to the UK Border, preventing inadequately documented passengers travelling to the UK, identifying visa abuse and developing criminal investigations against individuals and organisations which cause harm to the UK. IEI works with UK and international law enforcement partners. The IEI team in Bangkok has responsibilities for Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma.
The ILO manages the day to day workflow and performance of the team, developing investigations into organised immigration crime and visa fraud. A significant amount of liaison and investigation work is required with host authorities, UK and international law enforcement partners.
The role involves shared responsibility for of out of hour’s phone coverage to meet operational commitments, an additonal allowance is provided for these periods.
Main duties are responding flexibly to real time events, conducting risk assessment, report writing, developing intelligence, and managing staff . Strong decision making skills and the ability to work under pressure and without supervision are therefore key requirements of the role.
Roles and responsibilities:
Responsible for investigations into Organised Immigration Crime – 50%
- Strong problem solving skills are required to identify and investigate suspected organised immigration crime and to develop actionable intelligence. This work will be developed with minimal supervision and the ILO will be responsible for ensuring this work is completed within the agreed timeframes, whilst continuing to balance the other priorities of the unit.
- Provide intelligence reporting and other products, as required, to inform Home Office colleagues locally and those in the UK about current and emerging risks, enabling targeted action to be taken by Immigration Enforcement or Law Enforcement.
- Producing/supervising the production of alerts, briefings, reports and other communications material, as required, ensuring accuracy and fit for purpose before onward dissemination to the target audience.
- Intelligence exchange with local law enforcement partners and counterparts in other diplomatic missions to identify threats to the UK border and to develop intelligence on visa abuse, forgery and other organised immigration crime.
- ILOs are responsible for risk assessing how and whether intelligence is exchanged on a case-by-case basis, taking into account relevant legislation and policy.
- ILOs are responsible for using this intelligence to develop IEI investigative work.
Air Interdictions - 20%
- Advising airlines on the admissibility of passengers to the UK and other countries, at the airport and through remote referrals, often to tight deadlines with no supervision.
- Work with Immigration and law enforcement partners and counterparts in other diplomatic missions to identify and mitigate identified threats to the UK border. Gathering information and intelligence on the use of fraudulent travel documents to feed investigations into Organised Immigration Crime and illegal migration.
- Producing/supervising the production of alerts, briefings, reports and other communications material, as required, ensuring it inaccurate and fit for purpose before onward dissemination to the target audience.
- Delivering briefings and training to airline staff and Immigration officers in countries of responsibility and conduct compliance exercises and reporting on selected Carriers to meet UK legislation.
- Flexibility to assist in other parts of the region will be required.
Visa Risk – 10%
- Strong problem solving and analytical skills are required in order to assess and develop, adverse information received from a wide variety of sources. The ILO must assess the reliability of the information received, determine if and how it should be used, in adherence with legislation, policy and procedures to meet business objectives. Maintaining accurate records and producing statistical reporting.
- Intelligence must be developed to identify trends and patterns of abuse and identification of organised immigration crime in the visa process actioned appropriately. It involves regular liaison and working with UKVI managers and Entry Clearance Officers (ECOs) regarding risk data provided by the team to assist UKVI in improving decision quality.
- Ensure local risk profiling tools are properly executed and appropriate action taken within agreed timeframes.
Liaison with international partners – 20%
- Representing the Home Office professionally, developing effective partnerships with the wider Embassy and with key external partners.
- Providing operational liaison and intelligence exchange with the numerous border control and law enforcement groups in Bangkok whose aim is to work together to tackle the threat of immigration crime.
- To engage with law enforcement partners in Thailand ensuring the Home Office's views are appropriately represented.
Line management of 1 Immigration Liaison Assistant
- Proven experience of working in Immigration, law Enforcement or Visa fraud
- Educated with a Bachelor Degree or above
- Strong interpersonal and verbal communication skills
- A high level of written and spoken English and Thai with the ability to write high quality reports and briefings. Minimum of 6.5 IELTS
- Strong organisational and time management skills
- An ability to work under pressure with minimal supervision is essential
- Excellent IT skills (MS Office), particularly Excel
- Accredited Immigration, Police, Military or Customs investigation skills
- Previous working experience in fraud or aviation
- Training/Presentation skills
The British Embassy offers a competitive remuneration package, including salary (will be abated for those not liable to tax), benefits, a leave entitlement, Health Insurance.
The role requires the job holder to provide out of hours on call phone coverage 1 week in 3. This attracts an additional allowance.
The successful candidate will work for an average of 36 hours per week. Flexible working available. However, given the nature of this job, occasional weekend work or work outside of normal office hours may be required.
The job holder will be expected to travel to other ASEAN countries to receive role specific training. You must have a passport for international travel and has not been refused a visa or entry by any country.
The majority of training will be in the form of mentoring and on occasion staff exchange sessions with other diplomatic missions. A wealth of professional and personal development opportunities is available from the Foreign Office Diplomatic Academy, local L&D Committee and e-learning programmes.
The British Embassy Bangkok encourages all staff to develop their capabilities, through both formal training (courses) and informal (job-shadowing, coaching, on-the-job training etc). The majority of our formal L&D opportunities are drawn from FCO resources. All staff are encouraged to share their skills and experience with colleagues, through informal training (‘lunch & learn’) or coaching/mentoring. All staff are eligible for 5 L&D days a year.
Please note that there a number of mandatory Training courses and E Learning that must be completed successfully.
Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment and security checks. Staff who are locally recruited by the British Embassy are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law.
No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. You must have or be able to obtain work authorisation in Thailand in order to apply. Any costs related to obtaining or renewing permits and visas are the responsibility of the successful applicant.
All applications must be received before 23:55 on 4 November 2018 (BK time).
Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.
Reminder for existing Embassy staff who will be interested to apply:
Along with the completed online application form, candidates should upload their last two years End of Year Appraisals if applicable. If applicants have been employed for less than twelve months, they will need to provide permission from their Head of Section to apply and should attach this to their application.
Guidance on completing competency based application forms and sitting Interviews can be found on the BE Website and also on the Civil Service Learning portal, Virtual Ashridge portal and Goodpractice.net (both accessed through the CSL). Staff are strongly advised to refer to these.
We recommend all applicants to understand the Civil Service competences before applying for any role and in preparation for interviews. For more information, you can visit our website - https://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/british-embassy-bangkok/about/recruitment.
Please check your application centre regularly for any update on your application
This opportunity is closed to applications.
