From 27 to 29 September 2022, the EU-funded Border Management Programme in Central Asia held a regional workshop in Riga, Latvia on the recognition of anomalies in X-ray images for freight transport on land borders for custom officials of Central Asian countries.

The workshop aimed at improving and strengthening the skills and capacity of custom officials to work with X-ray control equipment for inspection of vehicles and goods. Implemented in the EU MS, this activity ensured practical introduction into good practices.  

The BOMCA experts from Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania and National Customs Board of State Revenue Service of Latvia introduced information about the legal basis for the use of X-ray equipment and the principles of analysing this type of images.

During the workshop, participants familiarised with the basics of analysis of X-ray generated images, the principles of analysing and evaluating such images. Also, they were introduced to the best practices in the evaluation of X-ray images, X-ray scanning systems used by EU Customs administrations, and work procedures in the use of scanning equipment.

Within the framework of this event, the staff of the Customs Services of the Central Asian states visited the National Customs Board of the State Revenue Service of Latvia and the X-ray Data Analysis Centre, where they got acquainted with modern X-ray scanning systems, technologies for analysing and evaluating X-ray generated images, working procedures in the use of scanning equipment, Baltic States’ freight X-ray image exchange system, as well as best practice for training scanner operators in the EU MS countries. The practical exercise and training were based on real cases of seizures made at the land borders of the EU countries and the use of the X-ray image interpretation program to effectively detect hiding places in trucks, trailers, cars, minivans and railway wagons.