A week in the life of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service

Each week on average…

We clear:

• approximately 268 000 air passengers arriving in Australia on more than 1 620 flights
• about 260 ships arriving in Australian ports from overseas having boarded approximately 137 of them for inspection
• about 14 overseas small craft arriving at Australian ports
• approximately 24 600 export entries, 268 700 air waybills and 48 500 sea cargo manifest lines for imported cargo.

We surveil:

• nearly three million square nautical miles of Australia’s Maritime Domain (AMD) with air assets to combat multiple maritime threats, including irregular maritime arrivals, illegal activity in protected areas, prohibited imports and exports, compromises to biosecurity, illegal exploitation of natural resources, piracy, maritime terrorism and marine pollution.

We patrol:

• our coastline and seas, including the Southern Ocean and Northern waters and respond to mitigate, or eliminate the risk posed by the eight civil maritime security threats, including unauthorised maritime arrivals and the illegal exploitation of natural resources
• airports, sea ports, remote coastlines and mail centres and use about 62 highly trained detector dog teams.

We inspect:

• nearly 1 960 sea cargo containers
• nearly 29 400 air cargo consignments
• approximately 776 500 letters and more than 405 550 overseas parcels.

We detect or seize:

• numerous prohibited items including weapons, replica firearms, dangerous goods, protected wildlife, illegal pornography, material involving breaches of copyright and tobacco
• about 298 illicit drug imports including performance and image enhancing drugs.

We collect:

• approximately $188.0 million in revenue, for Customs and Border Protection and other agencies.

For information on any Customs and Border Protection matters, contact the Customs and Border Protection Information and Support Centre on 1300 363 263, email information@customs.gov.au or browse our website www.customs.gov.au.

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