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Customs chief to be appointed as head of Australian Border Force

Xinhua, May 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australian Customs chief Roman Quaedvlieg will be the first commissioner of the newly-established Australian Border Force (ABF), local media reported on Friday.

On July 1, the nation's border control functions will fall to Australia's newest security agency, the ABF, a merger of the immigration department and customs services.

The ABF will increase Australia's focus on border protection in part fulfilling the Abbott government's motto to "stop the boats".

The ABF officers will have substantially more power than Customs or Immigrations officers have now and will be allowed to carry guns.

ABF officers, who will have the power to detain offenders and gather intelligence, will work at airports, shipping hubs, immigration detention centers and on high seas.

The federal government is expected to appoint Quaedvlieg, a former police chief, as the ABF's first commissioner, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Quaedvlieg has held a number of senior positions at the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Crime Commission, and had emerged last year as a front-runner for the role of the AFP's next commissioner.

He was appointed as head of the Australian Customs and Border Protection service in October after more than a year working as the deputy.

The ABC reported on Friday several AFP officers had raised concerns the ABF recruits were being inadequately trained for firearm use.

They also questioned how AFP and transnational operations would be impacted by the ABF, but it is believed Quaedvlieg's police background should alleviate those concerns.

Quaedvlieg will have a five-year statutory term and sit alongside the chief of the Defence Force, the domestic spy agency' s director-general and the AFP commissioner.

The immigration and customs merger was met with some scepticism when announced by the federal government a year ago.

However, the opposition agreed having a single agency greet people at the border made sense, and fell into line with other countries. Endi